Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - 490 JRE Review Bradley Cooper

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

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You are listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast. We find little nuggets, treasures, valuable pieces of gold in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and pass them on to you. Perhaps expand a little bit. We are not associated with Joe Rogan in any way. Think of us as the Talking Dead to Joe's Walking Dead. You're listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review. What a bizarre thing we've created. Now with your host, Adam Thorn.

This might be the worst podcast for the best one a long time. Go enjoy the show. Hey guys and welcome to another episode of the J-R-E review. This week, joined by my old buddy Jay, who used to be a co-host on the show. Welcome back. How are you doing, bud? My man, how are you?

Doing good. It's been a long time, huh? It has. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. You too, bro. You too. I mean, we haven't done this since, you know,

since we were recording it on the couple styrofoam cups with a string. That's it. Back in the day. Yeah. Back in the day. Now you're upgraded. You got a studio there. That's it. I don't know what that background is. Looks like a couple of trisket crackers blown up. I know. It's pretty orange. That's how we roll.

That's how we do it over here. And Bob Ross is maybe first painting when he was eight back there. Yeah. We bought it, actually. Oh, okay. Yeah, we got it extra large. That's how we roll. It's how we roll here. things out in Cleveland there. Cold, dreary, depressing.

You know, all the usual. Oh, wonderful. Nice. Yeah, just what I'd expect. Yeah, yeah, somehow still here. Fantastic. Well, this week, we are reviewing the actor, Bradley Cooper. And funnily enough, Jay is an actor, and people often think that you look

like Bradley Cooper. You do look like Bradley Cooper, don't you? Yeah, well, let's, do you like it when people say that? Does that annoy you? Because people say that to you a lot. Well, I'll say this. When I was, when I was younger, I think I liked it more. And it's been going on now for 20 years. And, you know, I don't want your audience to think, you know, too bad you can't post a picture because I'm not just, you know, some naive, pretentious, you know, narcissistic whack job. Well, that I am, but not for those reasons. That because, but I actually do and I get it still to this day. I think at least I don't go out of the house as much as I used to, but the days that I do go out of the house,

I get at least twice a day. Hey, do you know you look like Bradley Cooper? And I think the big thing for me was because, and I don't know how much we'll touch on this, but his life and my life are strangely similar in so many ways, not only the look, you know, but the way that we talk and carry ourselves. And so for me, it's as I've gotten older, and he's so wonderfully successful, God bless him, happy for him, my brother.

And I'm not. I think, yeah, every time someone says that now, it's a reminder that, you know, I'm like the watered down broke poor man's version of Bradley also at 50 years old. Where the fork went the wrong way in the road. Don't be so hard on yourself. You made it on this podcast. That's a big deal. I have a ride.

I have. It's a big deal. I have a ride. Yeah. I will say a couple, well, one, I don't know how much you want me to touch on this, but he and I did have a lot of parallels. You know, I was living, you know, he was in New York. went to the actors studio there, I think, and some other things and was coming up.

There's a really interesting video of him, if you've never seen it, where he's sitting in as a student, I think talking to Al Pacino or something. Yeah, I've seen that. It's great. Yeah. But he's there. I'm in Cleveland and then eventually making my way to L.A., so I was never in New York, but I went to, you know, Strasbourg while he was in New York studying. And then he was on Alias when I right around the time that I had gotten on the HBO show, the comeback. And people would kind of mistake us early on before he really got big for certain things and certain roles and things like that, certainly auditioning on the scene. And the pod was very interesting, listening to him kind of reminisce about all those times. And one thing that was funny, I'll never forget. And there's been so many times where people have said, oh, you know, and been mistaken.

And hey, are you him that want to know, are you him, you know, for whatever reason? Certainly when we were both younger. I never forget, I'm in a parking lot somewhere and I'm walking to my car. And this 50, 60 something year old woman starts stumbling towards me with her eyes spinning and this giant smile on her face. She looks possessed like in that movie Happy or whatever, right? Or smile, smile. And she's just coming towards me like an ecstatic. happy zombie woman.

And I'm like, what in the... Can I curse on this? I haven't been on this in a long time. Yes, of course. We insist. What the fuck is this, right? And I finally realized that for about eight seconds. She thinks I'm Bradley Cooper and she's in some kind of trance, right? And I realized what it must be like for him. Every single day, you know?

Every single day he goes out of the house. You know, and he... So that was one that I always remembered. But certainly I have tons of those types of stories and parallels to our lives. I did actually meet him finally at Sundance one of the years I was there. He had a movie called I think the words or something where he was like a writer. We finally ran into each other and I said, I don't know if it ever happened to you.

At that point, time, his career had gone so far as something as menial as that probably didn't matter anymore. But I thought, you know, I used to get mistaken in the early. years when we were both doing whatever. And so we talked and kind of had a good chuckle on how close we did look to each other. Oh, that's pretty cool. Was he a cool guy? He seems like a cool guy. Yeah, I mean, it's a very minimal interaction.

But yeah, and certainly I've kept up with him. And, you know, my parents said, my parents said it was bizarrely scary watching Silver Linings Playbook because I dealt with a lot of manic episodes as a kid growing up. I had a lot of energy, a lot of emotions, a lot of swings. His character in that is literally like watching me grow up or still even. Really? He was older in that. Yeah, my mom used to say, I can't watch that movie because it was like watching all the

toughest times of watching you grow up. Oh, wow. And we look alike. Yeah, of course. And his love and passion for Philadelphia is, you know, probably rivaled or surpassed by my love and passion for Cleveland, as you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And all things, Cleveland. So strangely, I did live in Philly for a year for a short period of time and just got done watching the Flyers get their ass kicked tonight. So Cleveland, I have the hockey team. So I'm a Philadelphia fan there. So I share that with him. So very interesting. Glad you asked me to come on for this one.

Well, that's why I had to have you on. And also, you're an actor. I mean, he is. And I've been matching up a lot of the guests recently in that way. just a kind of, you know, it helps because I don't have that inside, you know, kind of understanding of particular guests and, you know, just what they experience when they're, you know, going through their career or their passion or, you know, what they're delving into and it just helps out to have somebody that's kind of been there. I mean, you've kind of walked that same walk. It almost seems parallel in some sense. You know, I was surprised to hear when he, was talking about bulking up for um um what was it american sniper sniper yeah he put on like 50 pounds or something but he he wasn't able to juice like many of the um Hollywood actors do to put on that weight

and that was a lot of weight that he put on he wasn't able to juice for it because um cancer runs in his family and he had had skin cancer which right there with you it's like you guys are twins Yeah, and it's funny that you told me that and I was not aware. And there is that parallel. Strangely, my cousin lives in Yellow Springs near Dave Chappelle and Dave and Bradley are good buddies. And my cousin has even told Dave when he's seen him down there, you've got to get the two, my cousin and him together for something crazy because they're the same person. You know, and that one's another one. I mean, and a lot of things, it was interesting for him to go through a lot of the stuff that he went through in L.A.

or in acting and obviously me seeing the parallels. I certainly never had the success that he did. But I put in a lot of the similar work and hours and time and place. You know, I certainly had my distractions. And I found it interesting how his passion for it was so young, where for me I was, you know, I was a sports kid. And, you know, growing up in the 80s, you know, it was a different world of being in the arts.

You know, it wasn't like now where every kid can be in everything and not get made fun of and be like, oh, whatever. But, you know, so I kind of transitioned that more in my early 20s and got the bug and really wanted to be part of that and moved out there to do it. But, yeah, I mean, I couldn't believe that when you told me the, you know, I have this quick little synopsis of it. You know, my dad died at, he was a local Cleveland basketball, baseball, legend athlete and a super strong, you know, healthy guy that just got hit out of nowhere with

brain cancer and died when I was three and a half. And then my mother left the following year to go actually to move to New York to be an actress. And she left me with my dad's brother and his wife adopted me. Fantastic people. Very deeply spiritual, educated, awesome, all around human beings, strange parallels, teeming me with them if you know me the way you do, obviously. And so, yeah, that was a big fear of mine for a lot of my life. And then to get hit with stage two melanoma when I was 29, which was the exact age that my father was when he died, was a wildly surreal life experience and challenge to go through. And then, And recently in the last few years, my mother died of horrific breast cancer.

So it's just crazy that he lives with those fears. I understand that so deeply, you know, because I do now. Because I certainly, I try to breathe through it and forget it. But, you know, I do the math. My dad at 29, my mom at 60, whatever. I'm 48. I think if I average it out in the mean set for expiration date. Right.

But there were other things on there that I found so interesting. You know, he was talking about being on alias and coming to L.A. and how different that was and being isolated and depressed. You know, he drive this studio. You go back. You know, obviously, for me, there was a lot of auditioning and other things. And he got into, I think it was actually Rogan, who talked about getting his escape at the pool hall. And for me, as you know, that was going to the beach, swinging on the rings with guys

we're not in the industry. Right. Making each bum friends and whatever. And I think that partially distracted me moving up to Malibu, getting away, not being able to come down. And it's funny because you get the breakdowns in the morning. Now the acting world has changed so much where it's so much easier. You do self-tapes through the first three or four rounds of auditions,

which God, was that a godsend, being able to, you know, practice, do what you want, you know, send in your best one. It's funny because for us, it was very nerve-wracky. He usually had a casting person who didn't give a fuck or wasn't very good or, you know, whatever else. And then you had to read with them. One and done probably. They probably didn't give you many notes. If they did, it was to see how you could accept them and take them and send you on your way.

You know, and me moving up to Malibu, being a part of the beach crew, was you get the breakdowns and you think, ah, I might get this. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, fuck it. I'm not driving all the way to Hollywood, you know. And it's the stuff you don't think you're going to get that you get. So, you know, and that that probably didn't help my career in any way. That's for sure. But, yeah, it was really, really fun to listen to him go through that with Joe. I have to say something, though, on the side note here that I was bit disappointed

because I haven't listened to Rogan or any of the guys on there. Once in a while, somebody will send me a clip. But it's probably a part of my OCD that goes. on all the time, but one thing that drives me nuts about modern talking and speaking in general, and I was so surprised how heavily it was on the podcast from both of those guys. And I always, you know, I give my girlfriend shit about it and some of my friends, because everyone sounds like a valley girl saying like about eight times a sentence. And I'm like and like, like, like, and I couldn't believe that Joe and Bradley both probably said like 8,438 times during that two hours.

I know that Bradley's not trained on-air voice, but Joe certainly should be at this time, and he's dropping about 8,000 light bombs an episode. I did notice. We got to clean that up, bro. We got to clean that up. That this does not sound professional in any way. So like a moron valley girl, idiot.

I did notice a lot of those for sure. I think Bradley was bringing more of... Bringing Joe down. Well, I think he was bringing more of them out of him because... Regression to the mean. Bradley had a ton of. of those and while he was just trying to find his thoughts I think so it was just repetitive you know as he just trying to grab this idea and bring it forward I have a buzzer that I use on my friends

to help break them up the like disease in their brains you need and I they need that like buzzer on the Rogan so it's important it every time someone drops one so they can clean up their language it's important he does sometimes call some people out mostly his friends he's not going to do it to an A-Lister. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give him a chance. I mean, it's not as bad as the first time Mel Gibson went on, Rogan.

He had a pen, and he was clicking it the whole time. Literally. Like Bob Dole? Like Bob Dole? The entire pod was like this. It was insane. And of course, Rogan... You remember Bob Dole had to do that because he got hurt in a war?

Yeah, it was like for his... PTSD? Well, I think it was some kind of twitchy had in his hand or something. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Maybe it was that. I don't know. But the thing that they talked about within that time period at the beginning, it was hard for me to listen to. I'll be honest, just because of that. That's very difficult for me with all these likes. And the big one now that all the athletes use. They think they sound like Socrates or something or Confucius. They say, and you'll pick up on it now. I'm sorry to give you this brain, mental brain disease that you'll now hear. But they all say at the end of the day, about 8,000 times a day. And they think, you'll pick up on it now. And they think. it makes them sound super smart when you don't it's filler words it's nonsense you know and and that's another one that's become it's kind of similar to like literally for the valley girls it's now at the end of the day for all the athletes thinking that that adds something to their story neither here nor there but there were there were some that's a fella uh there's the yeah we call them band phrases

right so there's a um there was a couple other interesting things that they talked about. Well, before we jump to something else, I wanted to just cover this. Within that segment about them talking about creating memories, and they were talking about the memories that they're creating

and how they're having trouble keeping track of certain memories and things. And it was an interesting point that they were talking about consuming social media and small segments and how Bradley's not on social media. I thought that was because I've seen a big shift in how we've all interacted, certainly since COVID and how our memories. And I read this

really interesting science article the other day that our brains are no longer creating memories in the same way. We're almost living in this kind of fog where we're not creating long-term memories anymore because of our consumption of 30-second hits. I believe it. Yeah, something is definitely something is definitely changing i mean they're already seeing that with um how it's like an extension of google almost with the new a i's um basically it's an extension of so instead of your brain trying to remember a thing or expand on a thought it immediately just goes find the question and then go to either google or an i like that's the response like that's the response So instead of, I wonder how that works, try and figure it out or think about it as the immediate afterthought, your brain is starting to train itself to just go, well, just ask that question to an AI system and have it tell you.

I'm so glad I don't use any of those things right now. None of them. I know everyone is starting to use it, but to me, and that was an interesting segment they had a few months ago on 60 minutes. we're doing all these things with AI and robotics and pushing the bar forward. And they had a poll, I don't know how realistic it was, who knows who runs it, but probably the same people that run the fact checkers. But they had an AI poll or a poll about do people want more AI robots and stuff. And it was something similar to 80% or something saying that they don't.

But there's no governing body. We're moving towards this direction. Like we've never seen Terminator or Superman 3 and we're just moving in this direction. And there's no regulatory body for the world, even though the majority of the world says we don't want this or certainly not making our lives any happier. Is it making our lives easier? Maybe. But are we actually happier? You know, we're not we're not creating memories in the same way.

We're all addicted to the phone. The phone addiction over the last couple of years is just out of control, man. I mean, every other person I see driving is on their phone. and and and or more and uh you know you can't sit down and have a dinner with someone or a conversation or spend an evening sitting somewhere with someone without them being on the phone 80% of the time yeah you know but happiness is not the driving force behind this type of um production it's money power and control yeah perfect and that's that's usually driven by addiction and that's what this stuff is a lot of it i mean social media definitely is addiction don't you

feel like i feel like we are living in the world where biff is running the world and back to the future too oh yeah in the bad future in the bad future i feel like that's where we're living every everybody just gambles drinks smokes pot plays on their social media and is angry and everything sucks for the majority of things. I feel like Biff is in charge. Yeah. If anyone made a time machine, it's either Trump or Elon. Yeah, well, it's one of those two guys. Elon, yeah. I wouldn't put it past Elon. He might have figured it out. Uh-huh. I mean, how do you become a trillion out? You probably made a time machine. Yeah, he got the Sports Almanac. He's like,

know what I'm going to do. I'm just going to happen to invent four different companies that all become the most important companies that exist somehow. Yeah. Well, wait. He has three. No, what are you? He has SpaceX, Tesla.

What's the brain one? My buddy wanted me to invest in that a few years ago. Oh, yeah. Brain chips. Something link? Yeah. Neurolink. Yeah.

And then obviously GROC. which is the AI. GROC? Oh, I thought those were shoes. No, those are crocs. Oh, okay. He owns GROC, which is like ChatGPT, so that's an AI, and that's massive. Just won a huge government contract.

Well, and he also has Twitter, which is like one of the biggest media platforms in the world. So he just, yeah, he has everything plus a trillion dollars. Well, he bought Twitter to save American freedoms. Let's not forget. Saved it. Saved American Freedom by buying Twitter. Saved it.

Saved it, bro. Absolutely saved it. She uncovered the underbelly of corruption, opened up free speech, even if you want to say idiot things. Yep, yep. And I mean, that, to me,

I talked to my parents about that all the time. It's huge. Him buying Twitter is one of the most important aspects of modern American society freedom. It's one of the most bull-up moves of all time. Of all time, yeah. Yeah. It was a massive, huge,

like basically massive loss instantly. Yep. And now actually it's not even that much of a massive loss because it's kind of come back. But think about all of the freedom. That that opened up for Facebook and all of those things and Zuckerberg to come forward and make changes because of that because they felt more safety in the fact that Elon took a stand.

Yep. That's what was happening. Yep. You know, it's so absolutely important to where we are now. with our freedom. Yeah, and he doesn't get a lot of credit for that. I mean, certain people know it. Certain people understand it like you do, but plenty of people are so happy to just demonize him like there's no tomorrow. They do it without even question. It's really interesting talking to people that so quickly do that about him. And I get it. Like, there's, look, nobody's perfect and

there's plenty of things to have gripes about, but to ignore some of the moves and to turn everything into some evil maniacal plan is just, it's just not, it's not correct. I don't see it. Anyway. Some of the things that I always love doing this with you and making a few notes because there's so many things, especially on this that hit me. And I was glad that Bradley brought a bunch of this stuff up. And I thought it was really interesting. Some similarities, other similarities between he and I, that he grew up obsessed with

Vietnam, you know, because of that generation of things. And then for me, I grew up obsessed with World War II because my grandfather and JFK, strangely, for some other reason. And then he talked about that he doesn't do a lot of consumption. of news. He doesn't have TV in the bedroom. He doesn't, for me, I don't use a phone. I turn it off at night. You certainly don't have any of those things in the bedroom. Talked a lot about the things, you know, was it Pierce Brosner? Somebody said recently devilish little devices. I mean, you got to find some way to escape from those throughout the day at some point, you know. And then the other

couple things that I thought were so interesting is that he talked about back when we were hunter gatherers there was no time for relaxation or being quote unquote lazy and he asked what is next right and then maybe 10 minutes later bradley circled back to that maybe five and he said something that you've probably heard me talk about forever is the age of aquarius the utopian society whatever the one thing that i think will change this has been a theory of mine for 20 years the thing that will change humanity because you know joe said something along the lines of back when we were hunter-gatherers, the human brain almost couldn't function in the idea of relaxation, right?

Or be lazy for the day. Sure. And it probably took some centuries of quote-unquote breeding that out, that internal, not animalistic, that's not the word I'm looking for, but that innate way of behavior probably bred its way out as, you know, things became more normal heat a roof over your head you know things of that nature so i think we're going to what a i eventually i don't know when but somebody maybe elon is going to invent a nearly unlimited source of energy it's cheap and clean it's going to happen when i don't know but it's going to

happen and once we do that you can desalinate water you can solve all these problems you can now make food very inexpensively. You know, you have all those things that get solved from the energy issue. And then now you have AI and robots fighting wars, working in factories, eliminating, hell, white-collar jobs across the board. Now you're left with this huge amount of population. And this is what Bradley said, of people that don't know what to do with the cells all day every day, just hanging out. And that, I think, is when we get to the point. maybe this whole AI robotics thing is a merger of God consciousness to get us to the point where we don't have to operate just on basic things.

So it took a thousand years, two thousand years to get us out of hunter-gatherer mentality, right? Yeah. And now it'll take another thousand years to get us out of work, work, work, fuck, fuck, fuck, eat, shit, shit, whatever. You know, whatever the modern person, but gamble on, play fantasy sports, whatever you want to fill your time with now. Or is it to find some real connection with our source power, our God power, our universal existence? You know, when you don't have to worry about how you're going to eat and where you're going to sleep and anything else. Just a bunch of meditation, yoga. Yeah, but probably it'll just be a bunch of fantasy sports playing and gambling and drinking.

That's going to be in the transition. But depends. A bunch of sex robots. Did you hear them talk about the sex? Uh-huh. I was like, yeah, sounds pretty good to me. I mean, yeah. There's going to be a time for sex robots, for sure.

That's going to be part of this transition. Turn down the complaining and the nagging. Actually, let's just turn that completely off. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But he is right. I mean, you're going to have all these kids. I mean, you see it.

There's kids of this generation that do not know how to basically function out in the world. They don't know to order food at a restaurant. Yeah, they can't do a lot. They can't do anything. They don't have to drive anywhere, certainly, figure anything out or navigate, but they can't function. And now you're going to have these same type of people

not interacting with real human beings that have negative feedback. Hey, you're being an asshole, so now I'm not going to hang out with you anymore. You know, that doesn't exist. And then you get three robots and just hang out with them, and they'll be your little stranger things crew. Yeah.

You know, and then what are you going to learn from that? Because there's no real feedback. You know, that was a whole bizarre. segment to think about, isn't it? It could be programmed feedback, though, but it would be on your terms. If you don't like it, you just turn it off. Yeah, and that's what Bradley was saying. He doesn't appreciate or care about things that he knows he's still in control of.

It's kind of that unknown of us, of our existence. It's kind of similar to me. I don't know if you experienced this, but when I used to put in a CD or you would put in a playlist once iPods came along, right? it just wasn't as magical as listening to the radio and having your favorite song come on. Right. You know?

Whereas if you just put it on, okay, I chose it. I know it's coming. Whereas if you're just driving around and all of a sudden your favorite song come on on the radio, you just lose your fucking mind.

Like, it was meant for you, just this moment, you know, and so not being in control is part of understanding what it is to be human and understand that we really don't have control.

You know? Well, there's one thing that's inevitable and just very realistic and that's you know life needs to be difficult for growth for real growth i mean you don't really ever look back on your life and say man the things that made me who i am today were was that you know hippie retreat where we just all chilled in the park and hugged a lot and did yoga and meditation and you know, and ayahuasca.

Exactly. It's like, it's that time you lost your job or when your girl broke up with you or something hit the fan. When you're living with your friend and, you know, pot-tubbing it every morning

and working at Applebee's for $12 a day. And you're broke, and you've got no direction and you need to make just some wild decision off the cuff, and somebody just believes in you and they're like,

good luck, buddy. See you soon. Best of luck. A couple banana leaves for the park when you're sleeping in the park. And you've got literally a 2% chance of success. And you're just looking up at the stars, praying to the gods. I mean, that's the 10 years later, you got a podcast with hundreds of thousands of listeners. Uh-huh.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it works out. That's growth, bro. Yeah. But it's really be there. But it's not because you take the easy path, you know. Hey, I didn't kick you there with nothing.

I think I gave you $1,000 for some old bowflex weights and some mountain biking shoes that were too small. One of them junk. Oh, you did give me that shoddy, which I still have under the bed. Oh, you got a shotgun. Yeah, yeah, I got a shotgun out of the deal. Those weights were quality. Let's be honest. I actually, bro, they're still in the garage.

They're still good. They're still good. The bowflex with the turning wheels. You get in your mind as well. worth. And here we are. Full circle. I think 80% of that money you paid me was just to get you out of my house, though. You are eating out of my house here. Here's a thousand dollars. Six hundred of it is up for a flight to L.A. Now, good luck on that stand-up. Yeah, one way. You are eating a lot of my food. Get out. Get out. 12 dollars a day at Applebee's. You just come walking home.

the end of the street at the mall oh my god bro that was legend stuff but we should have made remember one of my crazy many crazy ventures of life the kombucha business was formed off of that which learned a lot and then you and I

I mean the conversations that we had in the hot tub in the steam shower if we could have recorded those legendary those were some of the most legendary man conversations just raw raw deep and like you said in a place where we were I mean both of us you know you were

you were fucked financially I was fucked emotionally mm-hmm well that's when it's that's when it's it's is it's real it's when you got to really analyze yourself and and go for it and and that's going to be that is going to be the problem and this is what we see a lot with with and you know I think Joe and Bradley talked about it perfectly it's like um Many of these kids today, they're feeling hopeless. They're kind of directionless. Things are pretty easy for them. And they don't have those same challenges.

And, you know, Joe and Bradley are a perfect example. Like, they hustled. They did difficult things. It was hard. They felt lonely. They felt lost. I mean, I wanted to get back to that, too. just that idea of moving to LA, knowing nobody, you know, you're an actor, you're doing this

whole thing. I mean, both Rogan and Bradley were talking about this. And it was interesting to me because obviously I moved out there. I went out to L.A. to do stand-up comedy. And obviously, I got there. I didn't know people. I was obviously doing something different. I wasn't doing acting. Stand-up comedy is a different thing. You just go to the clubs and you know, you kind of are supposed to be on your own. I mean, you'll talk to other comedians, but it's just about your set and it's kind of how it goes. I just don't, I was just so interested by that place. I just didn't feel lonely.

I was a bit older, though. I was in my mid-30s. Maybe I was just in a much different place in my life. The, you know, these guys were in their 20s. Maybe it just feels different. then. But even when he was just like, oh yeah, I was out of the clubs and nobody was looking at me, nobody wanted to talk to me. I always found people there very friendly. And I don't know what the experience was. I still think L.A. is a magical place. Even though there's not as many things made

there anymore, I have found it in the last couple of times that I visited over the last five or eight years. It's not the, I think I caught being there in my mid to late 20s, I caught the tail end of LA magic, you know, where it was the place, that New York, to make movies and television and kind of the old-fashioned way of showing up places and going to auditions. But the magical energy there, I think the thing that I've always thought about LA is that every day you get up in LA, no matter how down you are or how not successful you are or where you find yourself, you always feel that today's the day that my life can change. And you don't feel that anywhere else. Today is the day that I can get that break, that I can, you know, for me moving there,

you know, I moved there for a short period of time for a few months while I was still in school and then making the full move there. You know, I didn't really know anyone. I was staying in a hotel on Hollywood. It was some shit old Asian hotel kind of near for those that you know know it well, somewhere around Jumbo's Clown Room. Don't miss that if you're ever in L.A.

It's kind of a dive bar where women happen to be stripping. But there was a hotel there since been knocked down. I'm staying there for a few weeks. I'm trying to figure out which way is up. I get a call from somebody, a friend of mine in Cleveland.

connect with this little friend of mine. She's an assistant director or something and she has the needs a roommate. Boom. I end up in Sherman Oaks and then boom and Venice and Santa Monica and Malo before you know, you're there eight years. And that, just that, all of that was so magical. I'm so glad that I was able to do that. And there's so many people doing all that. He talked about, you know, I will say the scene and the pretentiousness and the hustle and whatever is a bit off-putting. And I didn't get deeply into it. I think it's probably one of the reasons why I didn't succeed, but I did have enough success and interest and stuff to get a taste of so much of it. You know, rubbing shoulders with all kinds of different, cool, interesting people.

You know, even the way that I scored that small part on that comeback show on HBO, you know, auditioning in a house at the last second for John Malfi and Michael Patrick King guys who did sex in the city. And just, I was always a bit naive. I think maybe he touched on that too, where you're just, you're there and you're just going through it and you don't even, it's, it's kind of like a rookie in sports, you know, you don't know how, you don't know what you don't know. You don't even, there's no pressure because you don't realize how big of a deal everything is. There's, they talked about that moment that, hey, if you don't hit it right now, you don't realize it's going to be a very different road maybe for a long period of time, you know, this is going to be much more difficult. And you don't realize that when you're there and you're in the mix, certainly early on. And that's just, there's so much of that.

I don't feel that there's as much of that in L.A. now. And certainly after COVID and all the crazy things that were going on in Hollywood and the homeless and just crime. And they ruined a lot of things there by letting it run amok. But the magic is still there in the bottom of it. Even though everything's done in Austin and Atlanta and everywhere else these days except L.A., you know, there's still a magic about that place and I'm certainly glad I was there for the tail end of it. The other thing that they talked about, which I love, and this is probably part of the draw for you.

And this hits me some of the things that I'd like to do with collectibles, certainly music. They talked about people love seeing people do something at the beginning and then look back on it and see that progression. Yeah. And finally, I've always been attracted to in human beings, certainly in women and friendships and just life being attracted to people who are passionate about doing something. For me, I was passionate about 20 things over my lifetime, probably is a jack of all trades, master of none,

but the people that really grasp something so strongly and do it, and you watch that unfold or you look back on it, an example that I always think of so vividly. I'm a huge 80s rock guy, you know that. I love Bon Jovi. And Jimmy Iovine, who did a lot of, producing a huge artist in the 70s and 80s. He's on Howard Stern one day and he's talking about he's friends with Tico Torres,

the drummer for Bon Jovi, who was a guy was a studio musician and highly qualified. John Bond put this band together and they make this record and they were having some success and then they go to the studio and they make this record and Tico calls him and he says, man, you got to hear this. Come pick me up. So he drives over, picks him up in New York. He's got a cassette tape with him. They get in the car.

they pop it in front to back they sit there and they listen to slippery when wet one of the greatest 80s albums of all the time living on a prayer you give love a bad name dead or alive whatever and the way he described the way he described them sitting in that car listening to those songs in essence for the first time right and he said i looked at him i said this is fucking unreal like do you understand how big this is going to be do you understand how good these songs are. And I always think about that, especially from a musician standpoint, when you make a record or you produce something or you make something as an actor and you realize that it's, it's God-sent, it's bigger than yourself now, that it was just meant to be created, right? And you were just a

conduit of that creation and watching all that unfold and thinking about what those people in those moments must have felt like, you know, when Titanic was done being filmed and done, they showed the first few people or, you know, this Bon Jovi album, just how that must have felt to be in those moments when you see someone going through the grind and putting in all the work and then seeing what comes out the other end, and it's just fucking masterful, you know? And I love that.

To me, that is one of my most exciting things to think about or relive through other people's relics or memories or whatever, you know, is to think, do you have any idea what you're fucking in store for? Yeah. You know, you know, and you know it. You just know it. Yeah, in a way, you're... I've certainly been there.

You're changing people's lives, especially with music, right? Movies can kind of do that, but music is something else. It becomes, like, it's wedding songs. It becomes part of people's memories. And it's something that, you know, you experience as a group often. And it's incredibly powerful. Well, we talk about this as collectors. you know, I'm into with my graded 80s kid collection and all that stuff on Instagram,

having so many different things. But music is still untapped as a collectible market. Yet the exact thing that you just said is the reason why I think music is always has the possibility of being the biggest one because, you know, collecting VHS, if you remember, was a big thing for a few years, right? And it kind of fizzled out video games, same thing. but when you're watching a movie, you're doing one thing.

You're watching and consuming the movie, right? When you're playing video games, you're sitting in a room playing the video games. But music, there's the first time you drive home and you open it up, on your way home, pop it in, listen to the tape, right? I'm talking about how we used to do it, you know. But same experience now.

But not only that, now you go on and you listen to it 500 times more while you're experiencing life. Yeah. And creating a blend of the soundtrack of your own life with these songs and the emotion and meanings that they have for you and then doing it over and over and over again you always have your go-to songs when you're emotional or happy or sad or a breakup you know and you go to these same and now those

become part of this soundtrack of your life that's why for me i don't i'm sure you have guys like this you remember how hard azi's death hit me because of you know self-destructive behavior patterns that i had as a teenager, memories, struggles, happiness. Ozzy's music was such a huge part of that for me and a big go-to at so many times. And so that, I mean, I couldn't believe that multiple times that I cried for the week or two when everyone was remembering and sharing so many things about Ozzy. But there were so many songs that were Ozies and mine, you know, for all these memories of my life. And music is the only thing that does that of those type of mediums.

Oh, for sure. You know, you're watching a movie, you're there, you're in the theater, you're at home, you're doing it. You know, it's certainly at least it's a emotional response and a connection, but not in the way that you're blending your life with someone else's shared experience of music and the way that they wrote it, you know. But then looking, be able to look back on, I just think that to me, I am so enthralled and and my mind is just fully locked in on somebody that is telling these stories of early or hearing someone or watching a documentary or something or a podcast, whatever,

about those type of early memories of creation of everything, watching people grow into what it's going to be. Amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. Do you ever think that some of those songwriters write that one song or that album? And they know that it's just going to not only change their lives, but it's going to change maybe music, you know, or a genre of music. It's going to be a defining album or track.

And then there's this moment where they sit there and go, oh, no, we're going to have to play that song a million times. I'm going to have to sing that song to the point where I feel sick by it. Yeah. Well, I'll give you a perfect example. Another Cleveland boy, North East Ohio boy, Janie Lane from Warren, rest his soul. You know, he always said, I wish I would have never wrote Cherry Pie because he hated it. You know, it was the song that the album that the record label wanted. You know, they wanted that banger.

And he, you know, he's such a talented music writer able to tell such emotionally connected stories. but the thing that he's known for for most people is cherry pie. You know, he hated it. But I do, I've heard so many stories of that part, like that Tico Torres story with Jimmy, where they say either while they're creating it, it's like that scene in the dirt for Motley Crew. Remember where they're playing in the living room

for Vince's would-be girlfriend of the week? Remember? And they're playing Live Wire. and then it just all comes together and she goes, holy fuck or holy shit or something, right? Because there's a moment where you're just like, that's a hit, that's a beyond a hit. You know, it's going to, and I think there are some,

I mean, as an artist, I've been an artist off and on for most of my life at certain things. There's a part of you that, I think certain guys are wired more like this than others, where you're a perfectionist and nothing's ever good enough and blah, blah, blah, for a lot of artists you hear that with them i think there's a part of that at some degree for everybody but if you're a realist i think you know you also i mean i know there's guys

certainly've heard the stories where just they thought everything sucked and they didn't want to hear it and you know whatever but i i would imagine the majority of guys look at something here's something that they created go holy shit right away like this is a fucking banger yeah you know and and and we're gonna we're i mean yeah i i mean yeah i it's can't imagine how many of those moments there are with all these different bands and how they came to creation. And they all have to be just as magical things for those guys to look back on. Hopefully they aren'tainted by any of the crazy negative things that happened. They can all hold on to those memories because they certainly deserve them. And I guess it's got to be the same way as an actor,

too. I mean, for Bradley Cooper, I don't know. What was his movie that really broke him out? What was his moment where he went, I did it. This is the one. This is the movie that's, I can't even think what. Well, him being part of a direct, directing the remake of Star is Born, I think, was a huge thing, the monumental shift in his career and even talked about it a little bit. And I will say that as a guy who, I certainly didn't get the opportunities that he had to be part of a creative process of an actor. And certainly as an A-lister, you get to have more input. You know, I did a lot of things, commercials, smaller roles, things where you're just a yes, man.

do this okay this guy can take direction pretty well and make changes good but you're still you have no creative input right you know and that became really monotonous and drab and whatever and and i think that's one of the beauty beautiful things one of the beauties of modern uh internet social media media things is that you you know i told when i used to have my acting uh school here i used to tell people certainly as the world was changing you know just go out and create stuff You know, do your own thing. You know, there's no reason why you shouldn't just be filming and creating and putting it out there. You know, Joe talked about that where he was talking about how the comedians were so cutthroat

to each other because everyone was fighting for three jobs on CBS and ABC and NBC. Yeah. And everyone was an asshole to each other. And then you all became collaborators and friends and people that could help each other, you know. And so, you know, it's the same thing now. You have that opportunity to be a creator. And when I was coming up trying to be an actor, that didn't really exist. You know, I mean, we all, there were different cameras and this and that.

I mean, think about, oh, we got to get this camera and this equipment. Even Joe was talking about that where you had to have all the right stuff, you know, to be able to make something. Now you can make a beautiful movie on your fucking phone, you know. And so there's no reason to put those barriers in front of yourself and no excuses. But that also, you know, people like to have excuses for not doing things. And that takes that away. So, but that's the thing now, and that's one of the reasons why I think for Bradley, that was huge for him to take those roles. And he's been more producer, director type thing since then.

But yeah, the first thing that I really remember him in because was that. And then his role in wedding crashers, I remember these because I used to get when I was out in the world or certainly out in the acting world. Oh, yeah, weren't you in wedding crashers? No, I wish that were me. That was not me. He was great in that, actually. Yeah. Yeah.

So those were some of the first things that I remember, because obviously I was more privy to that, getting mistaken for him in certain times, and being doing, I mean, our timeline was very similar for trying to come up. And then he just caught fire and took off. And, you know, no, that really probably, I mean, not probably, I know it was a hindrance to my own acting career in a sense because nobody wanted Bradley Cooper's look alike.

You know, nobody wanted Bradley Cooper's watered down cheap version. Mm-hmm. You know, so that was part of it too. And I, you know, and you get a lot of, I appreciate guys like him and Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and guys that, that have a great look, but take a lot of risk and do some really wild, fucked up characters, you know, and for me it was a lot of, oh, smile, you're the

boyfriend, you're the dad, you're the nice guy, you're the this. I'm like, do you have any idea how fucked up I am inside? You know? I'd like to be the axe murder in this one, please. Yeah, it won't take me much of a stretch for that. I'm actually a big stretch being the smiling boyfriend. Yeah. Yeah, it was interesting. I mean, just going over some of the kind of online feedback that it got one quote was one of the most mature guess that Rogan had had

in a while and you know I couldn't agree more another one was refreshingly self-aware and I will give him that it was you know and also very reflective I mean that's more my

takeaway from it but but he was very much that and it didn't really sound a lot like an A-lister. I mean, he was very normal on that. I mean, very chill. I could see him definitely coming back on Rogan. They would really bro-in-out together for sure. They seemed to get on very well. It wasn't like Rogan had to work hard for this one. Well, I think, you know, obviously you get to a point in life where you have the opportunity if you want, if you so choose.

And you don't have to be an A-lister, but just in life, to be comfortable in your own skin and accept who you are, your flaws, your good things, your bad things, what you've been through, you know, whatever. And, you know, I think it's easier when you've achieved that success to maybe do that. But you know, there's always the stories of guys telling you about their success and, like, they talked about it, filling that hole, and filling all the adoration that you get from others and it never becomes enough and blah, blah, blah. But if you, whether it's in acting or music or, you know, middle, choking cows. You know, you can find comfortability in your accomplishments in your

own skin and sit in that, you know, and be okay with it. And whether that happens at 20 or 40 or 60, you know, I, certainly he sounds like that guy, but I think there's a lot of guys in that, in that space, certainly there.

You know, to have the opportunity to be to be that person. He certainly sounds like that. I'm, you know, I always, I love when I see it's a strange thing. I don't know. I love when people succeed. You know, it's one of the things that's hard in that business and a lot of those types of businesses is that people think that success of one person is going to take success away from you. You know, when I see a badass motherfucker

walk into a room for whatever he does, I'm like, hell yeah, I love that guy. So happy for him. Yeah. And we always say, you and I've talked about this. Winners got to hang out with winners. Yeah. You know, loser mentality starts hanging out with winners. It's always a problem, you know, because those people think that there's not enough success around. What did Joe say in the thing? There's a lot of room at the top, you know. And so you can have, you can be happy for someone in that sense and feel that, that appreciation for what they've gone through and what they've succeeded at, you know.

Yeah, give them their props too. Like, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to like everything about them. but if they don't hate them because they are successful or they have something you don't, that is just a loser way of thinking. If anything, get to know them. The chances are they will help teach you how to get that. They will teach you how to get the thing that you also want. Hating them gets you nowhere.

It just doesn't make any sense. And a lot of people choose that path. You know, you see it online with comments. you see it just with like haters in general and it may make you feel better for a short period of time but it's not the way to do it it just isn't it reminds me of that time when my buddy and I were out there filming Shark Tank

one of my million adventures of life right well actually I think I'm still under a lifetime non-disclosure so I won't say anything more or you might have to cut that out now you won't fuck it but yeah and I told you that one it's the last five minutes of the podcast. Nobody listens to this bit anyway. Yeah, but everybody's gone.

Everyone's gone, dude. It's like Uker in Major League. Ah, nobody's listening in any way. They went 20 minutes ago. Yeah. But you can't say goddamn on the air. Ah, nobody's listening anyway. But

remember, we were at that bar and that guy with the loser mentality sucker punched me. I thought you were going to murder him. Remember that? Oh, yeah. I took that like a champ, right? I took that like Jose Batista on the chin at second base. That was a loser mentality hanging out with winners, you know, and that's the kind of shit that happens.

Yeah. You know, because people are jealous over things that there's no needs to be jealous or think that there's not enough room for everybody to succeed, man. I want to always be the people that lift everybody up together. Yeah. It was a total waste of energy. And you see it. You see it in those people because they constantly are wasting energy in that direction.

And they don't, you can't get. very far like that because you've wasted so much energy. Yeah. Doing that and it doesn't work. And, you know, Bradley and Joe are examples of that. They are not focused in that direction. They don't think like that. And this is why you get the types of successes that they have.

It's a mindset. And this is why these sorts of conversations are so important. This is why it's so great to sit there and listen to, men like this talk and especially for younger men to just kind of hear them express their philosophies and you know i mean there was a lot of kind of like life philosophy in this one which is what i thought was really cool and it's really useful to take forth and just go oh yeah that is a good way to do it that is a good way to think and you can get to this like successful place by thinking like that there was no bitterness there was no anger they've all been through difficult things they've all been

through enough stuff to where they could easily be angry and hate people and be resentful but they choose not to because they're not wasting their energy and they're very successful and they're happy fulfilled people and it's good i give this episode a solid eight out of ten i really enjoyed it you know i think bradley is cool as hell you know i've got i liked him before but I didn't really know him other than his movies and maybe a few interviews. I thought he was a funny guy. I liked him on two ferns with Zach Galfanacus. I was like, he's obviously fun.

But this is giving me a really good insight into who he is. And yeah, it was great to have him on. I think he's an awesome dude. I'm a big fan. Yeah, I thought so as well. I mean, I've obviously followed him a long time, kept up with what he's doing somewhat. But yeah, a guy who's comfortable in his own skin,

certainly a man's man. And Joe is a great, I mean, Joe's a badass motherfucker. I don't listen to the podcast very often, but the guy's awesome. He just fucking gets it all and deeply comfortable in who he is. And that's the realness to it. But then, you know, you said, does the success come from that mentality? Or does the success breed that mentality? I think it's probably,

It's a bit of both. Little symbiotic relationship, but certainly helps. You know, my buddy and I talk about it. I think about the difference in how I would be in L.A. working my way through as an actor or entertainer or whatever now as how I was at 25. You know, and the way that I would carry myself would breed more success because you're not hung up on all those things that they talked about in there that you are when you're 25 years old. Sure. You know.

And the way that you carry to yourself and the way that you carry to yourself and the way. The way that you don't try and don't care is what is so connecting for people, being real, you know, being who you are. And certainly being who you are within those audition processes even is very powerful. People don't realize that, you know. Very true. And on that note, we're Cola today. Thank you, Jay, for joining you.

Always a pleasure to have you back on the show. We've got to do this mall. And for everybody out there, thanks for. listening and we will talk to you guys next time. Later's. Yeah.