Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - The JRE review of 1264 with Timothy Denevi

Episode Date: March 19, 2019

Timothy is a professor and author of a book about Hunter S Thompson who is one of Rogan’s heros. Their conversation was a great look into the life of Hunter and really got to the bottom of how this unique man thinks. I learned a lot and will definitely check out his book. Enjoy my review folks! Please email me with any suggestions and questions for future Reviews: [e-mail]  

Hey guys and welcome to another episode of the JRE review. This one was a really cool one with Timothy Denevy, I think that's how you say his name, podcast 1264. For anyone who is a hunter-ass Thompson fan, this is a 100% a muskless into conversation. Basically, I mean, I became a really big fan of Hunter after listening to Joe describe how much he likes and really admires Hunter S Thompson. I was familiar with who he was just from Theorem Loathing in Las Vegas, the movie that came out in the 90s with Johnny Depp. I thought the movie was wild, it's crazy. I mean, if you haven't seen it, it's so trippy, it's very bizarre, and to hear that this was a real person, I mean it was enough to make you want

to hear more about him. And I'd heard stories, you know, he was really quite famous when he was alive and earlier in his life, just a wild animal. And yeah yeah let's get into the review Welcome to the Joe Rogan Experience Review where each week I review every single episode of the Joe Rogan Experience What more do you want? So Timothy wrote a book about Hunter S. Thompson and really goes into a lot of who he is obviously. I mean, when you're writing a book about someone, you're going to do that. It was probably a dumb thing to say, but just, but, but you can tell with his conversation with Joe that he has such admiration for this character, but he didn't

want to just tell the story of like who he was. He wanted to tell the story of like how he was able to create in such a way and what the work meant to him and also why his life was the way it was and why the drug abuse was there. So, you know, if you've ever heard Joe talk about So, you know, if you've ever heard Joe talk about Hunter S Thompson before you may have heard of the podcast he did where he basically read out the daily drug consumption of Hunter S Thompson, right, and it's crazy. It doesn't even sound real. It's like he gets up late in the afternoon, starts doing blow right away, he's getting drunk immediately, he's doing, I mean, it's just like every drug I think even drops acid at

some point, then he gets in the hot tub, then he does some writing, and then he does loads more cocaine, then he gets to work. And it's like, he had to be completely fucked up a lot of the time, all the time, just to kind of keep this creative element or maybe keep us self sane. Fear and loathing in Las Vegas is a good one for that, at least for the drug angle, and then there's another movie that's all the way with Bill Murray called Where the Buffalo's Rome. And that one, I mean, it shows that he's like obviously a bit of a lunatic too, but it doesn't focus too much on the drugs in that one as much as just

being drunk and trash in a hotel room and but they're both very good movies and You know Bill Murray was friends with Hunters Thompson, and I think that's a big part of why he wanted to play that character Because he just thought he was such an interesting dude. But yeah, there was something special with his writing. And I'm not super familiar with his writing and his articles, I really should look into it. Like he sounds like such a fascinating dude

that to not be familiar with it is almost, I mean it's almost disrespectful right, if you find someone interesting you should know as much about them as you can. He created some crazy stories that like rumors, he created this Ibergame rumor and Joe's talked about it before but it's a brilliant story where he actually admits it and he goes, no, I know it's a rumor because I made it up. He would just say crazy things and he got a lot, you know, this is way before social media, so his celebrity was just, you know, word of mouth and what was reported in the newspapers, but people wanted to know what he was up to. And a lot of times Timothy during

this podcast would say, a big problem for hunters, he started to become more famous than the people he was writing about. So it was just that people wanted to know what he was doing rather than even who he was talking to. That's kind of unique in a lot of ways. I mean, just for a reporter to have got so famous in his own right, I mean, you know, it probably added his own stresses. He had this cabin in the middle of nowhere, I guess Joe went out and visited it. And it's like a very secluded place where you could get a lot of work done, but it's also the place where he could get a lot of work done, but it's also the place where he committed suicide. And the story of that is sad, but also kind of like strangely empowering, dare I say? I don't know.

But towards the end of his life he was drinking a lot, almost all the time, Timothy talked about how you could barely understand him towards the end of his life. And I guess Joe said that Conan even did a piece with him where Conan went up, they were shooting some guns near his place. And you could barely understand him. There was like, it was just a shell of a man left, you know, he was tired and it was whatever. But it was tough, it was a difficult time. And you know, his drinking had just got to the point where it just worn him

out supposedly. And he would spend time in this cabin, he would write, he would do his stuff, he would always often turn things in super late and almost do it on purpose just to get a rise out of it. But his work was so valuable that the newspapers just had to put up with it. And, um, and as far as I understand too, he, he, at the very end of his life got on the phone with some of his family members, and that's when he committed suicide. I don't know if he did it right on the phone call, but he was like saying his goodbyes. He was in a lot of pain physically, like bad, like

hit replacements and other things and with the drugs and alcohol, I think he just wanted to choose when he went. And that's why I say dare I say empowering. Well, I don't really want to ever empower or encourage the idea of any sort of suicide, but, you know, he was a unique individual and he was going to do things his way. And for that, I admire it in some ways. He just had his root and he was going to stick to it. He wasn't going to compromise. He had big fights even with the president Nixon.

He knew it was a bad dude and he wanted to bring him down. And getting him in peach was like a big motivation for him and he really went with what he believed in and he came up against it many many times you know got beaten up by the police and just a lot of crazy shit around this guy's life and an incredible life it was too. I guess there's some good documentaries about him too. I think Gonzo is one and I can't remember what he was saying the other one is, but I'm pretty sure Gonzo is on Netflix, so check that out. I want to watch it. I need to get on and watch that for sure.

I've got to learn a bit more about this guy. What I find really intriguing and definitely during this conversation is that, you know, what is the so much admiration that Joe Rogan has for Hunter S. Thompson, right? I mean, a lot of people thought Hunter was a genius, and that's fair enough, but is it just that or is there more? Is it that he had this kind of freedom to, in a sense, work against the grain of things and do it his own way and find his own path and forge his own path in a way. And find the truth behind his work and not get told what to do. And even though there was adversity and, you know, people trying to stop him and pressure him, he's still carried on doing it his way. And that's, you see those similarities,

like Joe does pretty similar things in that right. I mean, he's definitely forged his own path and became uniquely very good at three pretty separate things, three pretty separate different things. I mean, you could watch the UFC for years and if nobody ever told you your role as a comedian, you wouldn't know. You just wouldn't know. I don't think I did when I first watched the UFC and then he started doing fear factor. I don't think I knew it was a comedian. I think I knew that he had been in news

radio. I'd seen that. But, you know, I just thought it maybe he did a bit of acting once. And then once I saw his comedy, I'm like, holy shit, he's fucking hilarious. This is way different than what he does in this other thing. I think there's something, I think that's why I'm so interested to know more about Hunter to see what the appeal is. See what motivating factors can come out of it. I mean, I'm not gonna sit there and say, oh yeah, that's how you want to get really good at your stuff is do a shit ton of drugs. Obviously, that's not a very good plan for the most part. But there's a freedom in it.

There's a freedom about doing things your way and finding what works for you. And he certainly had that and it was it made for a crazy story so yeah if you're interested at all definitely check out that conversation with Joe and Timothy. I mean Tim really did his work on that and I'm book and I definitely want to get that. But anyway guys, thanks for listening, appreciate your peace. you