The Joe Rogan Experience - #1257 - Steve Sweeney

Episode Date: March 4, 2019

Steve Sweeney is a comedian, writer, and actor. His movie "Sweeney Killing Sweeney" will be available everywhere this month at : https://sweeneykillingsweeney.com/

Look at you. I'm enjoying this. Jim, I wish we had a speed bag. That's my favorite thing. Two, one. Test. Steve Sweeney, ladies and gentlemen. How are you?

Hey, I'm great. I can't believe it. You know what? I've done so many things in my life. You know, movies, TV, all this stuff, stand-up. But Joe Rogan, oh my God. Back in Boston. Jesusup. But Joe Rogan, oh, my God. Back in Boston. Jesus, you run Joe Rogan?

Yeah, you've got fans, you know, that are like all these different ages and all different kinds of people. And I'm very proud of you. Thank you. One of the things that happened, you don't remember this, but you opened for me. Many times. Louis C.K. opened for me.

Nick DiPaolo opened for me. Many times. Louis C.K. opened for me. Nick DiPaolo opened for me. So people that want a little show business advice, open for me. It helps. And then you get to go buy me, and I get to watch you guys become stars. Well, I'm playing fucking Chinese restaurants in Saugus. Some of the best stand-up comedy in the world is at Chinese restaurants in Saugus, and that's a fact still to this day. All those people that live there,

they don't know how good they have it. Well, you know what it is? You know, you work with these guys. You and I have worked with guys that are like genius, you know, a transcendent, whatever word you want to use. But doing stand-up is not about being funny. It's about going into these shitholes and, like, developing this extra skin.

You know, you're a martial artist, and sort of you have kind of that mentality. But, you know, when I started, it was like I came from, you know, I was an actor. I was a very serious person. I was like an actor, you know. And I'd do,'d do these obscure impressions. Paul Schofield and Laurence Olivier. Resonance and all this bullshit.

And I'd be playing at places like the Sugar Shack. Do you remember the Sugar Shack? Yes, I do. It was a black R&B joint and they opened for B.B. King. Wow. Yeah, and I'm doing like John Lennon. It was very important when we started.

And the black, do some dirty shit, man. What the fuck are you doing? Don't you know any jokes? So in the back, I get heckled. My first heckler, he said, you suck. And I said, yeah, fuck you. Who are you? He says, I'm B.B. King. I hired you, motherfucker.

Oh, no. And then I was doing, I will never forget this. Do you remember the channel? The channel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The channel. It was a rock and roll place. So I'm opening for these bands. It was like that Blues Brothers scene where they're throwing shit at the cage.

So the bouncer, he says, point to people and we'll throw them out. So I'd point to them, but then they'd bring them out in the alley and beat the shit out of them. But I'm thinking because you're a martial artist, so I've kind of got this thing about fighting and growing up in Charlestown. And I think back on certain incidents when I was starting doing stand-up. And I was at this place on Com Ave, and this guy stole one of my lines. Now, I know that you're big into that, right? So he goes offstage. I hit him with a right cross and fucking goes over the tables. And I'm thinking to myself, my friends, I thought you wanted to be Jonathan Winters.

And they don't do shit like that. And then another time we were at the ground round in Brighton I'll never forget the ground round yeah I'll never forget this Joe so I'm on the guy on before me the guy in the audience is throwing little ice things at him right so I said my opening line usually you try to get the audience to like you or make them laugh or whatever. So my opening line was like, the first motherfucker that throws something at me, I'm going to knock him out. You're not exactly setting the stage for hilarious comedy. How did that work?

What's that? How did that work out? Terrible. I bombed. People think when you do this for a while, you've never bombed. I mean, there's no experience in life like bombing in Louisville, Kentucky. I'll never forget that. And a guy comes up to me afterwards, and he was trying to make me feel good.

He says, well, I could tell by your tone you're funny. But I'm doing shit like about subways and stuff. They don't even know what they are. Right. So those early years, there was like one, there wasn't even a comedy club. So you just kind of did it. I fell into it. What year did you start?

Oh, my God. I am now at that point, Joe, where people come up to me and they say, I'm so glad to see you. I keep telling my husband, I'm telling you, he's not dead. He has not died. So it's been like 30 or 40 years. I don't remember the year, but I remember those. Do you remember the year you started? No, I don't remember.

I started in 88 and you were a legend. I was a legend back in 88 yeah you were for sure dude i i watched you one night at nick's comedy stop kill so hard i thought i thought about quitting because i'd only been doing comedy like a year and i was like fuck this i could i gotta get the fuck out of this you know you know you know when i had that feeling richard pryor's first performance film. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Richard Pryor live. He filmed it in Long Beach. I went to see that with Stephen Wright, and both of us walked out. We said, we don't even want to do this. You know, it was so intimidating. Yeah, I know that feeling, man. Yeah. Well, you know, we got that feeling a lot in Boston. And as a kid starting out there, it was – I tell everybody that I stumbled into the greatest comedy scene in the history of the known universe.

In 1988, when I started, it was insane. It was insane. Don Gavin was in his prime. You were in your prime. Rogerson. I would watch these guys go up. There was so many guys that were so fucking good nox was killing back then there were so many guys that you would go any night you would go and watch

some of the best stand-up comedy on the planet it was it was amazing mike donovan mike donovan to this day people don't know who mike donovan is brilliant he was a fucking genius johnny most do you know who johnny most? Most people don't. No. He'd announce him for the red side, for the Celtics. And now I can't believe it, he just went under. Yeah, he would do this long impression of Johnny Most. But it's funny you say in your prime, because, and I've talked to people who've been in it

longer than me, this is one job where you can get better. Yes. You can get better. More skillful you know but it's something that you you know you just have to give the finger to the business because they're looking for the fat guy the small guy the black guy that you know they're always looking for something other than what you are right so you do what you do like you've done what you did you know the business in terms of like movies and television shows, yeah, they will try to lure you away.

And they lure you away with money. But the business of stand-up comedy is really about what you do in front of that microphone and how the audience responds. I've been on stage. I followed a woman. And she had a lot of TV credits. But she had no material. And it was unbelievable. You know, you forget.

When you do something, you forget. It's like you're a trained fighter, you're a trained radio person. You forget that in order to do it, you've developed a certain set of skills. And like in Boston, they have a St. Patrick's Day breakfast where the politicians try to be funny. And it's excruciating. You know what I mean? And you forget, oh, yeah, I do this all the time. It'd be like me trying to give a speech.

Before I came on this show, I talked to Nick DiPaolo, your buddy. Sure. And he says, well, Joe and I always talk about politics. And I said, well, nobody talks to me about politics. I'm well no nobody can't help himself nobody nobody talks to me about politics i'm just not that smart good i'm done with politics i'm gonna quit yeah i don't want to talk about it anymore you know where we are in this country now is like um well i i i kind of uh i don't like to not like someone because of what they believe. So I just kind of do silly shit.

I was thinking the other day with the Democrats, you know, I'm going to run. I'm going to run. But they've got the moderate lane, the progressive lane. So I'm going to run in the breakdown lane. You know, just a silly little shit, you know. I try to, you know, keep it upbeat shit you know um i try to you know keep it upbeat whatever but i i got into this i fell into this because i kept thinking i'm gonna get an acting job and i won't do stand-up this is gonna fucking end at some point you know what i mean right and i i have

you know i like people the kids kids will actually ask me for advice. And I say, advice? Are you shitting me? I fell into this shit. I expected it to end. But I say, all right, you want some advice? Don't ever work at a place that's named after the guy. Like if it's Vinny's fucking pizza parlor or Joey's shithole or Bobby'sbie's money making piece of shit when it's named after the

guy it's never enough you know about nick's comedy style nicks now i'm gonna do something for you okay we're gonna play a little scene okay now you ask me say is nicks a mafia joint is nicks a mafia joint? Yeah. Is Nick's still around 100%? Nick's is around. Is it the same ownership? And do you know that there isn't one inch of that building that I didn't do coke in? I believe that.

It was really something. I mean, it was like, I know that, you know, I lived in LA many years ago and it's like, I'm driving around and say, oh, I know that spot. So with Nick's, I know every spot in the building. By the way, I didn't know that this was a camp area. Oh, you see all the campers? Yeah. Right out in front of your place. They're everywhere.

Well, they find these side streets where the cops won't kick them out. Yeah. And semi homeless people. They're not homeless. They just have mobile homes. You know what it it is the homeless people here are so peaceful they're like uh they're like the caravan you know they're just they don't bump change they don't do anything they just kind of walk around i'm sitting in front of your building here it was like a fashion show for the homeless one guy comes by with a buffalo bills jacket and the other guys then you

know and they're just quietly talking to themselves and you know what's freaking me out i've only been here 12 hours but everybody is either really soft-spoken or i'm losing my fucking hearing because like even at the rent in the car and and the woman says, did you want a Honda? Did you want a sedan? I said, what? What? Did you want a Honda? I said, what?

You know, in Boston, it'd be like, what do you want for a car? You want to be upgraded? You know, it's like the noise pollution. Well, it's louder there and colder, and people are angrier. It's a different place. Out here, it's just, even the homeless people, they don't have it so rough. If you're going to be a homeless person, this is place to go people are very open-minded it's relaxed it's warm i mean the cold as it gets is like 40 that's as cold as it ever gets yeah but you know if you're giving advice to homeless people it's like

like i was i was sitting in westwood in a Starbucks, right? And the guy was just sitting there, you know, and all these people are having their lattes and shit, and he's just, you know, one of those crazy laughs. Everybody's just going along with their conversation. You know, I don't know what to say about the homeless thing. Have you ever been downtown? Have you ever seen Skid Row?

I myself was homeless when I was like 16. I was a hippie. My father passed away when I was 15. It was a different time. No, I haven't been downtown. You were homeless for how long? I was a hippie. It's different than being homeless, but a couple of years.

Really? Yeah. You know the worst moment? I was lying, I was downstairs in this guy's house, and I overheard his girlfriend saying, no, he was saying to his girlfriend, I don't know, I keep asking the guy to leave. But, you know, I was, you know, here's what happened to me, Joe.

I read Jack Kerouac on the road, okay? So I wanted to be Jack Kerouac, and I wanted to be a writer. So I did everything that Kerouac did except write. You know, I was living in YMCAs and drinking the wine and the whole thing. But it was a whole different country then. Why didn't't you start writing was it one of those things like eventually you'll start writing but right now i wanted to be a writer i didn't want to fucking write you know what i mean right like you're an artist you don't want to paint writing's the hardest job in the world i don't know how people do it but we did this movie which

i'd like to mention that Bill Broadus wrote this movie. It's called Sweeney Killing Sweeney. And you can get it on iTunes. It's out right now? Pre-order it. When's it out? It's going to be the middle of March, but they can pre-order it. Okay.

But this guy, Bill Broadus, wrote this script. And it's like my 20-something movie. I've done a lot of acting. And I said, this thing is so good and I wanted to be able to get guys who I knew were tremendously talented to not be in these clubs, you know. It's very like demeaning sometimes, you know know for a guy who's really good at what he does and somebody's like texting and you know all this bullshit like i had a woman

you know usually i'm i'm like okay about it you know i say okay listen you're putting us out of work like in the future i'll text you a joke then you text back lol you know silly little shit but I had one woman and she's the arrogance you know and it was a benefit too and she's doing this and she said it's okay I can multitask so I said oh okay

so when I stick it up your ass you're still gonna be able to talk and everything you know what I mean so I see guys like Stephen Wright who's in the movie, Nick DiPaolo, Bobby Slayton, Jonathan Katz, all different styles of comedy, Lenny Clark and Tony V and Frank Santorelli. I wanted to see them get in something where we could really work. And they all did it. They're all in the movie

and it was a fantastic experience woman director lisa mullin was just it was great it's the first time i produced a movie which is really hard what is it a like a dramatic movie like what is it i'll tell you the plot briefly no i guess it's a comedy, but it has its moments. The HBO maybe or Showtime or some company comes to town and they want me. But they say the characters, they're too local. You've got to get rid of the characters. So then my characters try to kill me. So I play five different parts, six different parts. Like a Peter Sellers kind of thing from Doctor Strange.

So like you're losing your mind? Like your characters are trying to kill you? Well, you've got to figure that out. Okay. You don't know whether I'm losing my mind. But I had just come off The Equalizer with Denzel Washington. I was in that. And that was an interesting experience because, like, this beard you know and um the director who did

training day he said to me you know you got to shave your beard and i said listen man i saw my face 25 years ago it scared the shit out of me this beard is here for a reason i'm the most ugly motherfucker i've ever seen i can't do it then he told me how much money I was going to make. I said, would you like me to shave my balls too? Similar experience, something about Mary. So my scene, if you haven't seen it, Ben Stiller's thing's caught in the zipper. So I'm the cop. I come in the window and Peter directed it. I said, you know, I don't have to grab his crotch, right? He says, yeah, you're an actor. You got to grab it. I said, I don't have to grab his crotch, right? He said, yeah, you're an actor. You've got to grab it. I said, I don't have anything against it, but I just can't do it.

Then he told me how much money I was going to make. I said, you want me to just grab it? Because I'll give it to him. Anyway, that was my experience with that. Do you really feel like it's demeaning working clubs? Because I still enjoy working clubs. I love it. I mean, out here, of course, we do the comedy store all the time.

I do the improv. But I do clubs on the road, too. Those audiences are easy. They're great. They're there to laugh. You mean like shitty clubs? You mean like bar gigs? You know, here's the thing.

When I'm on stage, I'm okay. You know? But when I'm driving to fucking East Methithun elks club it bothers you that i get a fucking depression you wouldn't believe it's funny you start to feel old in the day like driving to those gigs was awesome right like something shifts like what is it that shifts is it is it in your own head is it is it just that you've done too many of you know what i think shifts is you stop drinking i've been sober 26 years that's the problem that's the problem i yeah i say to people i said if i kept drinking my career would be through the roof you know um no they're a great club

skiggles is a great club it's a great club route. Route 1 on Saugus. Good pizza, too. Good pizza, and I'll do a theater. I love that. I'm just giving you the other side of the story because people do get into this, and they don't have an idea of what the life is like. You know what I mean? To be on the road, and like a lot

of my friends are now doing cruise ships. Those are depressing. You're trapped, and if you eat shit on a cruise ship yeah you're stuck with those people for seven days well that's that's the problem and they keep coming up to you you were awful you personally ruined our whole vacation we're from ohio we had never even seen the ocean you ruined it and then they'll say to you this is true you they'll say oh you stay on the ship no actually i swim next to the ship then we're 150 miles out in the shark infested water they scoop me up tell a few stupid jokes then they throw me overboard you know i i got fired from

a cruise ship for the weirdest, for a religious joke. And, you know, I said this dumb joke about Mitt Romney. I like Mitt Romney because it's hard being a Mormon in Massachusetts. It was always just me and Mitt. I thought I was Mormon. My father kept saying, you're a moron. So silly little joke. And that's what they complained about.

They fired you for that? They complained about. Jesus complained about i never fit in anyway with those cruise ships you know it's it's really good if you if you are an active alcoholic you'll knock it's wonderful or if you're addicted to food oh my god yeah the lunch buffet the breakfast buffet the midnight buffet i know. It's like you go on. You look like a normal human being. You get off the ship. You're like waddling.

Yeah, there's a lot of people that love you. And it's the manufactured fun. It's like I love your warehouse here and everything. You know what I like about it? It's quiet. You know, a lot of these gyms, sound, sound. And these cruise ships, you can't even go to the pool without hearing 80s disco. You know, it's like this thing, have a good time.

If you're not having a good time, there's something fucked up about you. You know, have a good time. Well, I think what they're trying to do is— Activity, activity, activity. Give people something to fill their time with when they're stuck on a floating vessel. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not interested.

But I still love clubs clubs i still enjoyed going to you know what's great in a club i mean i probably overstated the other one but i'll tell you what does shift is when people are there to see you that's good yeah that's a nice thing because then you're actually able to make people feel good and in service but i've always had the same problem joe is uh when people try to help you by heckling or whatever and they think you know this is their help or whatever i it's it's like uh you know you're a fighter you you feel that temper come up you know when it comes up quick and you gotta you gotta contain it and react and but like in real life i wouldn't want to know those people right they yeah so every job has

timing yeah and i just feel like you know you prepare this material and you've you've uh worked on it you want to give it to people yeah you know yeah but i'm not complaining i've made my living out of this you know so i mean it's just you you want to be realistic like when somebody's kid asked you you know what what is it like you know yeah you know what you know an audience i hate is an open mic audience why because the other comedians they're really tense you know what i mean they're really fucking tense right because they I mean? They're really fucking tense. Right. Because they're thinking it's like an audition.

Right. They're nervous. Yeah. So you feel it in the air. You feel it in the air, man. Yeah, but if you can go up and be smooth. I remember Teddy Bergeron going up at Open Mic Night. There's another one I wanted to stop doing comedy.

When Teddy was in his prime. When I first started in 1988, the first night I ever went on, Jonathan Katz was hosting at Stitches. And Teddy went on and did a set, and I was like, good Lord. His fucking timing, his material, everything was so sharp and so good. It just seemed so unattainable. It seemed so out of reach. So that was a thing about open mic nights in Boston.

Pros would stop in. They'd stop in and let you know how it really should be going well i was at the comedy store when richard prior was working shit out and he'd start on a monday and they'd go up he'd bomb didn't matter he's working the material a week later he had this unbelievable set yeah i worked with george carlin i worked with rodney dangerfield i work best part about being in this business, for me, is the people that I've worked with. Just meeting them and seeing them and seeing people great at what they do. I'm sure you feel that way with MMA or whatever.

Sure. Well, comedy as well. It's been amazing watching people develop their acts. And just to know that that's a process that we all have to go through. You know, the process of creating material, it never gets any easier. It's always hard. I mean, to this day, when you're working out new material, it's probably weird, right? It's funny.

The material seems to come to me. You know, I'm at that point where it just sort of, events write it. Right. Bob Kraft and the whole thing. But here's what I don't like about, does this sound like a bitch session right now? No. Are you sure? Yeah, we're just talking shop.

Okay. What I don't like is it's Trump all day and then all the late night shows, it's more Trump. Yeah. You know what I mean? There's no escape from this. Well, that's what they think people want to hear. Yeah. I don't think it's that creative, though.

It gets a little tiresome. Yeah, I think so. Especially after two years. Unless you've got something really funny to say. I always keep the door open. Someone's got something really funny to say. You never know. You know here's Stormy Daniels is doing stand-up now?

You know, that's another thing. People fucking, you know what I mean? She's probably got five minutes of material. If that. If that. You know, there were guys, I think it was Richard Lewis and Dennis Miller and a couple of other guys came through Knicks. And they didn't want to close.

You know, they'd follow me. Of course. I watched some of those sets. And then I said, one of them said, you know, I'm going to, can I middle? I said, sure. I'm going to get your money though, right? He said, oh, no.

I said, well, what the fuck? You're the headliner you know but I mean I followed Jay Leno at the improv you know you got to follow people yeah you got to follow people but in all fairness what I

used to see and I saw this many times at Knicks was some poor fuck who had like a couple of tv credits who thought it was hot shit and they would go on and they would headline at nicks and they would stack the deck and it would be horrendous it was you and lenny and fucking knox and all these savages would go up and boston style comedy where there's no breaks. It's just fucking bang, bang, bang, bang. There's a style of comedy like, hey, I know you worked all day. You don't want to hear anybody bullshitting up here.

Everybody talks fast and they're fucking funny. And Gavin would go up and murder. And then these poor bastards would go up after them. And just these people with their TV credits, you would see them just be, within five minutes, they'd be lost. They'd be very observational. Have you ever gone to an airport and noticed? Well, they just didn't expect that. They would see three world-class headliners do 15 minutes in front of them.

I'll tell you a funny story about Knicks. Sam Kennison, right? You know, he had been up for a few days, obviously. But anyway, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know the era. So I said, and Sam was a good friend of mine. He was a nice guy when he was straight.

He had a dark side, you know, like we all do. Yeah, yeah. But I said, Sam, this isn't, you know, this isn't L.A. You know, these guys, you know, Joey the Job and Billy the Fron and fuck them, you know what I mean? They're sitting up front. You know how Sam was. And I said, Sam, I'm telling you, these are the wrong guys to piss off. They had to fire him because those guys.

They'll kill you. They don't have any sense of humor. No. No. Well, not only that. They don't have any sense of humor. No. No. Well, not only that, they don't want to be fucked with. Yeah. Oh, no. Right.

Boston is some of the weirdest people in terms of the way the rest of the world works. They're ready to fight. There's a lot of people that are ready to fight. They're ready to fight you. They're not going to shoot you or stab you. They're going to beat the fuck out of you. Right. And they're going to do it right then and there and it'll happen anywhere it'll happen at a restaurant it'll happen at a bar it's one of the last places that we when we used to tour there

ready to break out well you would see real fistfights yeah like all the time like ari shafir used to say that like uh me and him were leaving uh fanny hall once and there was a fucking brawl breaking out in front of this mcdonald he's like, you fucking people are savages here. I'm like, I'm telling you, it's a different kind of human. It's cold for too much. The women are assholes. The men are assholes. Everybody's ready to fight, and everyone's drunk.

It's a different kind of place. Well, you know, I grew up in Charleston, right? They did a movie about the town and all that bullshit. It's a bullshit movie. But anyway, I grew up in Charlestown, right? They did a movie about the town and all that bullshit. It's a bullshit movie. But anyway, I grew up over there. And you didn't have to win, but you had a fight. Yeah. And my record was probably like two wins and 30 losses.

And then two, you know, there was a lot of draws because they break it up right away, you know. But there were actual fistfights. Yeah. because they break it up right away. But there were actual fist fights. One time I'm in the projects, this kid Davey Ladder, he did the one thing you're not supposed to do. He kicked me in the balls and then everybody jumped and beat the shit out of him.

The one thing about kicking people in the balls too, don't ever miss because then the other guy gets very mad it doesn't work as good as people think it does it hurts it hurts now were you in street fights i started fighting to avoid street fights i know exactly what you mean i wanted to fight like as an amateur like in martial arts tournaments because i was scared of street fights it seemed to me it seemed to me to they are frightening fucking terrifying you never know what's gonna happen people follow you around you never know

when it's gonna i was scared of fighting that's why i got into it i was i just i did not like that you remember that day when you're in grammar school a kid offers you out yeah at 8 30 in the morning so from 8 30 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon what's that running down your pants did you just shit yourself yeah and then you're in the schoolyard and they're all circling around you you know and it's this whole thing but my father used to train fighters boxers over at the new garden gym and me and my brother we would get into terrible fights and my father never taught us how to throw a shot or anything.

He'd just give us these big, enormous freaking gloves. They just let you go to war on each other? Yeah, it was weird. Why didn't he teach you? Probably tired from teaching people all day. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, probably.

Maybe he wanted us to beat the shit out of each other. You know, I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe you want to just figure it out on your own. Yeah, probably. Or maybe he wanted us to beat the shit out of each other. You know, I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe you want to just figure it out on your own. Yeah. Or, you know, I remember coming back, and this kid, he beat the shit out of me, Bobby Buckley. And my father said, what are you doing at home?

You got to go back out there. What? You got to go back out and fight him again? I said, fucking all right. Yeah. But, you know, there's a lot of different ways to be, like, in Charlestown growing up. I mean, I grew up with some guys that were, like, unbelievable. Like, you know, there's a whole moral thing, maybe, or a social thing about, say, robbing a bank.

I mean, would that ever freaking cross your mind no but that's a charlestown thing that's one thing that is true about that movie the town but but what i was in awe of people that would do it it's like where do you get the balls that you know and i'll never forget this friend of mine joey rocco who's no longer with us so i see him up at government center you remember government center yeah so i see him up at Government Center. Do you remember Government Center? Yeah. So I see him up there, and he's got like his lunch. And I said, Joe, how you doing? And he kind of blew me off.

Then I see him a week later. He says, hey, Sweens, what's up? I said, what's up? You blew me off a week ago. He said, oh, I'm so sorry. I was waiting to rob Crimson Travel, and I had my gun there. I was interrupting his work. So he came in to Nick's Comedy Stop. There were 400 people.

I did fantastic. I was like practically a standing ovation, whatever. So Joe's in the audience, right? And so I talked to him afterwards. So there's a number of things he could say, like, geez, I like this show. I didn't like your show. Good for you getting out of Charlestown. He gave me this look.

I was like, wow, there's got to be a lot of money in here. I said, you think I'm here to case the joint for you? It was unbelievable. We used to, part of the thing about Charlestown growing up was you had a shoplift. Did you do that when you were a kid? I got caught shoplifting candy once. Candy, yeah. You were bad.

You probably were terrified, right, of getting caught? Terrified. I got brought into a manager's office. I think I was 12. Oh, yeah. I got in trouble. I was terrible, too. I was so paranoid.

But anyway, there was a department store called Jordan Marsh. And my job was to catch the football. They'd throw me the football. I'd catch it and run down Tremont Street. So we've just stolen a football, right? So that was the gig. So one time I'm up there and this other kid says to me, pick up the end of this canoe. I said, what? He said, grab the end of this canoe. I said, what?

He said, grab the end of the canoe. We're stealing a fucking canoe. So we're walking down Washington Street in Boston with a canoe, right? Now, I don't know where you're from, but it's not a big item in Charlestown, canoes and the projects, you know what I mean? It's like not something you could,

you couldn't fence it. Did you take it to the Charles River? i don't know what we did with it you do try to you end up either giving it away or selling it for like three bucks but that was back then the river was very very dirty like you i used to swim in that that was the uh what we used to call the oilies because there was so much oil in it yeah it's better now though right didn't they clean it up a little bit that's what they say you know they mean they've they've cleaned up the whole of boston i don't recognize boston anymore they got this part of boston called the seaport it's all these big buildings it's like freaking dubai you know there's no kids

there's no neighborhoods there's no characters it's all just gentrified you know very rich people now right yeah apparently yeah what is it like bankers like who's got all that money i that's what i keep asking myself who who does have all this money yeah boston is definitely but la is the same way you know yeah all this all money yeah but there's normal neighborhoods in la like around here like you could like woodland hills like you wander around west hills like yeah studio city there's normal neighborhoods there's regular houses there's plenty of but you know they're normal spots what i've noticed though is i was in portland oregon and there was a whole like city of homeless people yeah in la it's just it's sparkly it's like jimmy's on top of an ice cream you know you gotta go to skid row skid you never seen anything like it skid row is a homeless

city it's insane there's thousands of homeless people wandering through the streets they've taken over entire neighborhoods like it is it is bizarre it's bizarre we used to film fear factor downtown we would uh film it at these abandoned warehouses. They would rent them out, and we would throw people off the roof and shit. And there was this one area where you would go where, and I'm not exaggerating, there might be a thousand people on this block, like a concert just let out. Like they were having a homeless concert, and they're all just just wandering around there's needles everywhere and tents and garbage in the streets and and people just shuffling around walking back and forth so they i guess there's

some homeless centers you know where people can go and get food and things and shelter you know i'm starting to wonder like what, what's wrong with me. With you? Because I seem to focus on that. You know, every city I go to, I say, wow, it seems like there's more and more homeless people. And other people are saying, oh, let's go to the Freedom Trail. Let's look at the beauty of San Francisco. Look, I'm shitting on the street.

To me, that's, like, unusual. San Francisco has an app where you could find where the people are shitting on the street To me that's like Unusual Well San Francisco has an app Where you could find Where the people are shitting I'm not joking right We pulled it up before Yeah There's so many people shitting In San Francisco

On the street My friend Jake Shields Got a photo of this guy Taking his shit Right in front of him Just shit spraying out of his ass Right into the street From the sidewalk Into the street I don't know what And they just do it In front of him just shit spraying out of his ass right into the street from the side into the street no i don't know what and they just do it in front of everybody it's i don't know

why people you know who's sicker the person with the app or the guy taking a dump well i think there's a certain open-mindedness that san francisco has a lot of very progressive open-minded people which is good but the problem is it opens the door for some ridiculous stuff like people shitting on the street there's too many homeless people to they're too open-minded and too liberal look at that that's the that's the shit map that's where all the people are shitting that's that's a dark puddle of shit where so many people are shitting on the street in that area see that's and i don't even know how they clean that up i mean what do they do they scrape it hose the street down is that an

extra is that are they creating jobs let's look at it on the positive side god maybe those uh reminds me of the parades when they step the horses there's nothing you could do either i mean what are you going to do you're going to give these people a place to live you're going to give these people food you're going to give these people money there's that are you going to do? You're going to give these people a place to live. You're going to give these people food. You're going to give these people money. It's not going to fix their mental illness. That's what people don't understand about a lot of these folks. It's not that they run on bad luck. They're not on bad luck.

They're mentally ill. Their brain's not working correctly. And if they don't want to be on medication, they don't have anywhere to turn, they don't have anywhere to go, they're going to stay there. And they don't have anywhere to shit. And, you know, they just want to use the street and i don't know if they could put up porta potties and say for homeless folks only and what can they do we're not going to solve that on the joe rogan we might i'm an optimistic person steve i was always you never know i was thinking of myself you just you know just shit in your pants um So, anyway, we've covered that. What else is the problems that we have in this country?

There's a lot of the – I always look at – Why is everybody so pissed off in this country? Because everything's going well. There's so much going well in terms of the economy, in terms of safety, in terms of that. So people are focusing on other things to be mad at. Moving away from war to, you know, like, you know, when you don't have to worry about as much violence, people concentrate on microaggressions.

That's one of the things that does happen. There's definitely problems in this country, for sure. But I think that part of the outrage is that people are, it's recreational. They're looking to be outraged about things because there's no real problems. When there's real problems, people focus on, you know, you have to really worry about violence or you have to really worry about health. People focus on, you know, the good things in life. People are only happy if they have a certain amount of adversity that they have to deal with. When there's less and less adversity, I find that people become more and more outraged and easier.

They're outraged at small, minor details. Or they're denying that people should be allowed to just fuck up and make some mistakes here and there. They concentrate on those mistakes like it's the end of the world. This person should be ostracized from society and kicked out and this is the end. Well, going back to politics if you get into discussion with somebody you agree with you still end up being pissed off because you're pissed off at the other side or the other political thing is you're angry at each other for different points of view yep but i always think to, as I'm sure you do, it's an amazing place to be.

We have enough food. We have enough water. I, myself, I think life is two things. Life is a gift and life is short. Yeah. And the purpose of life, my opinion, is to develop whatever talents you have and then share it. I couldn't agree more. What a place to do it. It's the best place in have and then share it. I couldn't agree more. What a place to do it.

It's the best place in the world to do it. You have the opportunity. But it's like I think we do tend to complicate things. What I don't like is when we let other things get between us as human beings because it's a whole – that's why I like Buddhism, for example, because you're never going to see, outside of rare exceptions, a Buddhist country is never going to invade another country, because the whole principle is mindfulness. In other words, it's all within you. So you don't have to push your beliefs on other people. Like, I have a lot

of friends who become christians which is great for them but they always put you in a i always feel like i'm put in a box yeah like have you accepted jesus you know how the fuck you're going to answer that you know what i mean not yet say not yet keep keep convincing it's on the way yeah that right. It's like one of those unanswerable things. Well, it's also a thing where people can hold it over you. Muslims, Christians, it seems like they believe that people have to hear this great message. And if they don't hear it, they shove it down your fucking throat. I think half of them don't even think you have to hear it.

They just want to have it over you. They've accepted Jesus into their life and you haven't, so they win. There's a lot of that. There's a lot of that. I mean, you see so many hypocritical Christians that don't really follow, turn the other cheek. They don't really treat everyone as if it's their brother. They don't really do that. They don't really feel that way.

They're not out there helping the poor. Well, that's because that standard is like, you're going to be Jesus? Right. You know, I mean, Jesus Christ. I mean, you know what I mean? No pun intended. But who can live up to that? I'm sure someone can, but most of the people that are proselytizing aren't.

No, people that proselytize anything it's like it's very uh you know it's like what get away from me yeah well it's a it's a shitty psychological tactic yeah it doesn't work yeah it just makes people it's we used to talk about it's like when you try to get people to do things they're less likely to do those things as soon as you are angry at them that they're not doing it, they're going to go the other way. People don't like being told what to do. Well, it's just like if somebody wants to get sober, right?

Right. If they are ready, I work in jails. That's one of my part-time jobs. What do you do in jails? I do substance abuse stuff in jails. you do in jails i do substance abuse stuff in jails so if you um if they're ready everything you say you're like a guru if they're not ready it doesn't matter what you say right so i do groups in jail i teach meditation i also teach uh goal setting i've been doing about six years i've been in the field of substance abuse for a while.

And it's very rewarding. It's not, you know, you don't make any money, but it balances the life. You know, I don't want to sit around all day. Most comedians, that's what they have to do. You know, they work at night. Right. So, yeah, I work at Plymouth Jail. How often do you do it? Two or three days a week.

That's good. So it's not every day. No, and I take the summers off too because it's intense. I've had groups. I had one guy, he came in. And you do divide people ethnically. White guy, but 6'6". He did state time.

He was all jacked. And he was wired. And he started complaining about the place. And I said, hey, this isn't, I teach him to breathe. You know, like that guy Haas you had on your show? Wynn Hopps? Yeah. But I teach him a different method.

It's just you breathe in four you hold it four you let it out it's just a calming breath so anyway this guy i said hey place isn't a hotel he stands up he says i don't think i know it's not a fucking hotel let's do our breathing let's relax but you But a lot of guys, they can't see themselves. They can't see contradictions. One guy, he was a Muslim, right? So I said, so you guys pray like five times a day. How do you know when to pray? And listen to this, Joe.

He says, the guy said, well, if I'm doing a heist in the afternoon you know i'm gonna miss that prayer you don't see any contradiction looking amazing yeah the guy the big giant guy that was angry did he have a certain amount of time before he got out or was he in it for life no no he was he was on his way out he was close. That's when guys get the most anxious. How long had he been in for? He'd been in for about 17 years. It's a very polite society. Really?

Prison society is very polite because every little thing, just picture you're trapped with all these other guys, a lot of mental health shit, a lot of stuff. But every little thing is picked up on and reacted to. You know, it's like that scene in Heat between De Niro and Pacino where they're just reacting to each other. So you say, can you please pass the salt? And the guy passed it because at any minute,

that's what I try to teach is about impulse control. Any minute anything can happen. Yeah. Well, you're dealing with a bunch of very impulsive people that also have a very short fuse they're used to violence violence is one way of acting out so what i say to them is i have the same thing but it's not through violence for me it's like texting or something you know i react or i drank yeah you know so it's it's about stepping back staying calm yeah it's hard stepping back. Staying calm. Yeah.

It's hard when you get tripped up. But the mind listens to the breath. That's the key. Rather than going up in your mind, take that breath. And you know, like when something's happening, like a car crash or something, first impulse is hold your breath. Don't hold your breath let your breath out i mean a lot of traditions have this you know tai chi you know pranayama in yoga so yeah breathing

is critical it's everything i mean when wim hof teaches it you know if you follow those methods you can you can really change your physiological state you can You can get out of a lot of things. It can get you through a lot of things. You know the thing I don't buy, though, is that fucking cold water. I don't want to go into the Arctic like him. Holy shit. It's because you live in Boston. Oh, my God. You get an allergy to cold.

My friend Mark De La Grata, he's ready to go. He's done. He's been there for too long. We were just talking about this weekend. A lot of people, they get like that. They hit the wall. You know, I think two of the most boring subjects on earth are like how cold it is and how wonderful the weather is out here. And then the other one is how someone lost weight.

You know, I look at them like, what makes you think I give a fuck how you lost this weight? And then they'll ask me how somebody else lost weight. Like Frank Santorelli lost weight. I look at them like, what makes you think I give a fuck how you lost this weight? And then they'll ask me how somebody else lost weight. Like Frank Santorelli lost weight. And he wanted to tell me, Frank, this is a car... We have to talk about something with more substance.

And then people will say to me, how did Lenny Clark lose weight? It's like, I don't give a shit how he lost weight. I'm a self-centered fucking comedian anyway you know the good thing about cold weather though is it teaches people character the people out here that have never had to deal with an earthquake they don't know any weather related nature related hazards if you stay here it just warm, and then it gets a little cool, and it stays warm.

I spent one winter out here that was horrible. I was trying to get sitcoms and never getting anything, and it rained every day. Really? It was horrible. And I was staying in one of these corporate apartments. Oak woods, gardens. Yeah, yeah. But it was a cheaper version. And the guy next door was from Jamaica, and he was on the phone all fucking night.

He said, this is the only time I can talk to her. It's got to be this time of night. I'm telling you, man, it's real important. I mean, I can bang it. It's going nuts. Yeah. How long you been out here? Since 94.

Oh, you've been out here a while. Forever. I've been here more than anywhere else in my life. But that's my observation. You grew up in Newtonton didn't you well i lived there from i lived in jamaica plain from i guess 13 to yeah 13 to 14 i lived there for a year and then i lived in newton from 14 to 20 and then uh then i lived in revere and i lived in saugus for a while you know you got a you got a reputation for what it's a good reputation oh that's good yeah what did i do well it's just

what we were just talking about you have a reputation as a badass oh that reputation yeah that's a good thing it's mostly bullshit it well you had tyson on yeah and it was interesting that he didn't want to go back to it you know marvin haggler has the same problem oh yeah well he was the only guy that ever just quit at the time but he won't he won't punch a bag or anything because that thing comes up in him where he he wants to do it again it's like an addiction and he's got to be 60 now it's still yeah still welling up inside of him i respect him so much you know i always looked up to him when i was fighting because uh i remember the discipline that that guy had like i remember watching videos

of him and he was uh living on the cape he would do his training camp in the cape and he would run and he was running on the sand the boots the boots. Yep, with combat boots on. And he was yelling war. He was getting ready to fight Mustafa Hampshire, and he's running and shadow boxing. He's yelling war. And I'm thinking, could you imagine if you had to fight that fucking guy? When he was the middleweight champion of the world, first of all, he was chiseled. He was sculpted out of bronze.

He didn't even look like a... I mean, he was so jacked for a boxer when you think about like most boxers they didn't have that kind of a physique his physique was like almost like a gymnast you know when he was in his prime and he just was so disciplined and so far and then beat the fuck out of everybody and then lost that one very controversial fight to sugar i was at that fight yeah yeah and then lost that one very controversial fight to Sugar Man. I was at that fight, yeah. Yeah, and then he was like, that's it.

See ya. I've had enough. Went to Italy, became a fucking movie star, which is crazy. He said, apparently, I mean, I've never seen an Italian movie with marvelous Marvin Hagler in it. Nobody has. I think they have in Italy. I think it's a myth.

It might be a myth. Un giorno, can you see him? Oh, he's from Brockton. The rumor was always that he threw the fight with Leonard, that he could have KO'd Leonard, but all he had to do was let Leonard go to a decision. He would lose that decision. They pay him a boatload of cash, and he goes to Italy.

What is this? Is this Marvin Hagler in a movie? Yeah, I don't know. Oh, really? Oh, he is in a movie. I've never seen that. Jesus Christ. Oh, that's a long time ago because he looks real young back then.

Oh, my God. He is in one. Indio 2. No one's ever seen those movies. Wow. So this is an Italian. Well, you know, they made all those spaghetti Westerns with Clint Eastwood. They did all those movies in Italy.

Oh, my God. Isn't that something? Those movies, those job look at you look at he's shooting everybody oh yeah jesus he's an action star that's hilarious i wonder well he's still jacked in that movie so he must have been doing some kind of exercising look at him oh Oh, my God. He's punching people. Jesus Christ. They're flying through the air. So, Indio, it looks like, oh, this is so hilarious. This is so hilarious. So, he definitely did some movies. You know, when you do a movie and the guy hits you, you're supposed to move your head so that he's not actually hitting you.

And I hope Marvin knew that. I'm sure he did. Because he, thank God god he pulled the punch i did a movie in um boston called southie with a guy throws me in a dumpster and kills me right and they had to do it over and over and the guy just got out of walpole the state penitentiary i'm not going to mention his name but he's the director now out here, as a matter of fact. I said, hey, do you know this is a fucking movie? Because he's firing the shot, the starter's pistol, and he kept throwing me over. That guy is in everything.

What year is that? Brian Dennehy. That was 1989. Yeah. Indio won. So, 89 was probably just a few years after he retired. Wow, look at that. He retired somewhere around 86, 87.

When did he fight Leonard? What an era that was. Oh, it was amazing. We used to watch. Remember you'd go to see closed circuit fights? We'd go to a theater and you'd watch it on a big screen, closed circuit. I can't tell you how many. I got so ripped off because you had Tyson on.

I remember driving. I was out here to go to this big fight. 50 bucks, and I walked in, and Tyson knocked him out in the first round. That was all that ever happened. People were trying to figure out if it was worth it. Yeah. Yeah, but it was, what did it say? 87.

87. Interesting. Oh, my God. Yeah, and that was it. He's like, I'm done. So that was only two years after he retired. He was doing movies. The best John the Beast Mugabe. Mugabe doing movies. The best John the Beast Mugabe.

Marvin Hagler versus John the Beast Mugabe. Did Marvin have hair for Mugabe? No. I remember seeing Marvin with hair at the gardens. What? Yeah. Did he grow it out for a goof? No, he had a hard head.

Early in his career? He had a really fucking hard, he had an extra inch of skull or something they were saying. No, it was the side temples. Is that what it was giant temple muscles they said he was almost like built with his head Mugabe yeah Mugabe was a murderous no that's Thomas Hearns no that's the voice of Thomas Hearns that's Mugabe for sure Mugabe he hit Marvin Hager with an uppercut snapped his head back and this is an uppercut that he was knocking everybody out but non-Mar. Marvin took a punch better than anybody.

He said the fight only started when he started to bleed. I think Juan Roldan was the only guy that ever knocked Marvin down, but it wasn't a real knockdown. It was a trip, and they counted it as a knockdown. Look how strong he is. He was a tremendous fighter. Look at how inside. Look at how he gets inside.

But so was Mugabe. Mugabe was a murderous puncher, man. Toe to toe. Wow. He was knocking everybody out. He knocked out Terry Norris. He knocked people out dead. Like, you would hit them and they would go flying.

But not Marvin. Jesus Christ. Marvin stood right in front of him and eventually KO'd him. And then Mugabe was never the same again. Once he realized that this motherfucker could stand right in front of him and beat the shit out of him. What does this referee stop? What is he doing? I don't know what's going on there.

That's Mills Lane. Hey, now that we have a break in the action, look at the shots he's doing. What is this referee stop? What is he doing? I don't know what's going on there. That's Mills Lane. Hey, now that we have a break in the action, I'd like to plug my movie, Sweeney Killing Sweeney. Yeah, middle of March. We talked about it. It's coming out. I want to plug it again. We'll plug it.

We'll plug the shit out of it. All right, good. When it comes out, we'll put it on Twitter. All right, buddy. I appreciate that. But he was, that guy, Marvin Hager, was to me like, he was the epitome of discipline. You know, and I thought about like a disciplined fighter. It was him.

Always in shape. Always ready to go. And then the discipline to never come back. That was amazing too to me. I respected the fuck out of that. Because fighters never know when to leave. He knew when to leave. And to this day, I saw him in an interview recently.

He's fine. Talks completely normal i had some chatter with him at the prudential center how often how long ago brother that was maybe a year ago he's a regular very regular guy yeah like no no brain damage no no slurring words yeah that's that's amazing when a fighter can figure out how to get out before all that stuff hits but you know you know how they feel? They feel like no one else should tell them when to quit. Oh, of course.

Have you had Mickey Rourke on this show? No, I haven't. Yeah. I would, though. Because I think that I read he was fighting at 57 in Russia or something. Oh, older than that. Really? I think he was 62.

I think he was 62 when he had his last fight. And it might have been a fake fight. Oh, really? I'm not going to lie to you. It looked like maybe Mickey thought it was real, and the gentleman he was fighting was... He's 66. 66. Yeah.

He was 66, and he was in a boxing match? Yeah, he's 66 now. I don't know if I was, but... I believe he was 62 or 63 when he had his last altercation inside the ropes. You know, fighting boxing gyms, the old ones, were fun to hang around. I remember I was sitting there with these five guys, and we were talking about some election, and they weren't saying anything. And the guy said, do you realize that we're all convicted felons?

Like, why are you talking to us about who to vote for? You know what I mean? Can't vote. Is that him now that's mickey wow look at him that's in last year five looking good for 65 looks like he's at some sort of a homeless shelter or something where's he getting his clothes there he's got no shirt on he's in rome i think like a fashion somewhere in rome i just saw something with him and he was doing a he was walking a fashion show. Yeah? I've seen him at the UFCs before. He's always there saying hi.

He's a nice guy. In very good shape for his age. I mean, he used to spar with James Toney. He used to, like one of the things that he did that was probably very questionable was when he was at the height of his movie career, he decided to stop and become a professional boxer. A fighter. But I think he was a fighter before he was an actor. Yes, he was.

But when he stopped. He was down in Miami. I think he kind of felt like acting was fake and that he needed something real in his life so he was going to have some professional fights. But apparently, that's why he started getting all that plastic surgery. He fucked his face up his face was smashed you were an amateur mma guy no mma just kickboxing and taekwondo there was no uh mma when i was fighting it didn't exist yet at least not in america wow i didn't find out about mma until what's that like being in the ring

kickboxing it was nerve-wracking the thing, too, is there's no money in it. You're fighting for free, and you're training for months or weeks or however long it is that you have. You're constantly sparring. You're constantly getting kicked and punched. It's terrible for you. But it's a good thing to learn. I think it's a very important thing to learn To know how to fight is a very good thing

But to fight You gotta know Unless you're doing it professionally You gotta know when to stop You gotta know when And I started getting a lot of headaches Did you? Yeah, I was sparring

But that's one thing about Boston Like we're talking about Boston You know, Boston audiences are hard Boston sparring's hard. Boston fighters, there's not a lot of technical sparring. When you technically spar with somebody, if you hit them, you hit them like this. You don't hit them full blast.

You tap each other so you know where you're making mistakes. There was none of that. It was just swing for the bleachers. Every fucking round was war. You know what's like that that I still go to that I love is the Golden Gloves. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's all action. Three rounds.

Three rounds of that. But that's a competition. What I'm talking about is training. Yeah. The real beatings you take are in the gym. The beatings that nobody ever sees. You know what's amazing is that this friend of mine, Jimmy Farrell, had a gym in Quincy. And I'd look at these guys and I'd say, wow, this guy's amazing.

He said, that guy's record is five wins and 13 losses. And I said, that guy? I mean, that's how good you have to be. I mean, these guys are like, there's no. Well, also some, they're inconsistent. Like a lot of fighters are very impulsive people, so they're often inconsistent. Like they'll get in shape for a few fights, and then a few other fights they'll fuck off. They drink too much.

They party, and then they go in a ring and they lose. They'll lose a close decision. They'll lose a war. Isn't a lot of it about style too? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. My favorite fight ever from a boxing point of view was ali and frazier

because well for one thing it was a fight to the death right i mean they literally were fighting all three times yeah to the death but joe frazier was an inside fighter and he was so low and then ali would stay away from him and just jab and it was just a beautiful exhibition of fighting styles inside fighting and outside fighting do you think there's anybody

listening to this that is interested in this shit they are believe it or not the left hook that Joe Frazier dropped Muhammad Ali with

100% the left hook Joe Frazier dropped Muhammad Ali with when he won the title when he beat him when Ali's comeback and that was like this is one of the greatest punches of all time one of the most epic Joe Frazier dropped Muhammad Ali with when he won the title, when he beat him in Ali's comeback.

And that was like, this is one of the greatest punches of all time. One of the most epic. Yeah, I mean, just swung that wild left hook and clipped him right on the chin and dropped him. It's one of the most iconic photos of all time is Joe Frazier leaping through the air, landing that left hook on the jaw of Ali and Ali going down.

I'm going to go back, okay? What are you going to do? There was a guy named Floyd Patterson. Sure. Who had that. He lost to Sonny Liston. Sonny Liston. I'm just reading about Sonny Liston.

Sonny Liston was a murderous bunch. Sonny Liston was one of 25 kids. He was his mother, you know, whatever. His father was like a sharecropper. Wow. And he got mother, you know, whatever. His father was like a sharecropper. Wow. And he got involved in gangs and all this.

And one of those guys, you know. I think he ended his career. He got shot or something. He died or something. No, he died of a drug overdose. Drug overdose.

I think he ended his career as like a bouncer in Vegas. Yeah. You know, like a doorman or something like that at a casino. But one of those guys like Joe Louis, Vegas. Yeah. You know, like a doorman or something like that at a casino. But one of those guys like Joe Louis, whatever.

Yeah, those big guys that end up. Yeah. You know, it's a funny sport. Did you ever watch that fight with him and Floyd Patterson? Not that one. Terrifying. Oh, yeah. I think I may have.

Terrifying. But I remember when, I'm old enough to remember when Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston. Yeah. Beat him twice. He was like eight to one. That was another fight where a lot of people thought it was fixed. The second fight. The second one.

Lewiston, Maine. Yeah. The hidden punch. Well, you could see the punch. They called it a phantom punch. You could see the punch. But it was like, he called it an anchor punch. Because it's like, as Liston was coming forward, he called it an anchor punch because it's like as liston was

coming forward he dropped it down on him like that and a lot of people say it didn't land but you could see his head react it definitely landed the question was whether or not he decided to stay down once he got hit and i think he did if you watch it just doesn't look realistic like if you watch when he goes down the way he went down seemed maybe legit, but the way he stumbled around, he didn't stumble around like a guy whose central nervous system got jacked. Here, we can watch it right here. Oh, my God.

1965, baby. Wow, what a great producer you've got. He's the best. Watch this. Look at this. Bink. See, that's a real punch, 100%. And him dropping is real, too.

There's no doubt about it. The question was whether that was enough to take him out. Look at that. Bank. It could have. But watch the case. See if you can find the knockout, Jamie, because what's crazy about it wasn't him dropping him,

because I think that was legit. What's crazy was how afterwards he stumbled around like he couldn't move, like he couldn't get up it just didn't seem real we just had it there that was like a long explanation i don't know if they're going to show the actual thing well they just showed him trying to get up that guy looks like kevin spacey oh i don't know if that was the actual wow here it is here it is play it watch here's the punch boom now watch he goes down and he just sort of laid down on his back and then he kind of stumbled around and acted like he couldn't get up they just keep showing it over and over again it was a hundred percent a legitimate punch and people

who say it's not they've never seen people get KO'd because people get KO'd in all sorts of weird ways it doesn't really make sense like it, a human being getting punched in the face, weird shit happens. Especially you get punched on the jaw. Like, people get touched with, like, a jab sometimes when they go out. It doesn't make sense. And also sometimes, here it is, it's right here. Also sometimes it's weird because you might have gotten hurt real bad in training. So a lot of guys come into these fights and they're already injured.

They just, boom, right there. Now let's watch him stumble around. So he goes down and he lays down on his back. See, this is where I'm not buying it. This just seems like horseshit. But I could be wrong. Now he's stumbling. See, like right there?

That seemed like he decided to stumble and go down. And he's trying to get back up. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. But I'm not buying it. And so the referee was Jersey Joe Walcott, who's a very famous champion of his own. Now they stopped the fight. Now why did they stop the fight?

I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember. Well, you know, in the first fight, fifth round I think it was, Liston put some white stuff on his gloves. Yeah. And he blinded.

This is how crooked the game was. He blinded Ali. Yeah. Cassius Clay. So Liston wasn't above, you know. Cheating. Yeah. Do you remember that fighter?

Oh, my God. This is so frightening. He wrapped something in his. Louis Resto. Yeah. Was it cement or something? Billy Collins Jr. No, he took all the padding out of his gloves.

Back in the day, they used to use horse hair with the gloves, and you could put a little hole in the gloves and pull the padding out. And Louis Resto, Panama Lewis was his trainer, and Panama Lewis was also the same guy that gave Aaron Pryor that little jab of cocaine right before he knocked out Alexis Arguello. I mean, they think it was cocaine. He said, give me the other bottle, the one that I prepared. He gives it to Aaron Pryor, and then Aaron Pryor goes out and starches Alexis Arguello.

They had a crazy war of a fight, and then he gives him something in this little bottle, and then Aaron Pryor goes out like a bat out of hell. And the question was always, what was in that bottle? Because there was no sophisticated drug testing back then. But Panama Lewis. But there was one of them that actually put cement or something in their gloves. There was that. That was a more recent one.

That was that Mexican gentleman that fought. Who did he do that to? Is that the redhead? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He doesn't fight anymore. Fuck. I'm drawing a blank on his name. But he beat up some really prominent fighters that way.

Who the fuck did he? There was one fight in particular. Boy, I'm seeing the guy in my face. Margarito. Yes. Antonio Margarito. Antonio Margarito. Pull up his record because he did it to some legit fighters and really beat them up.

And they were like, it didn't even make sense how hard he was hitting me. Because he would put plaster of Paris, apparently, inside the wraps. And then- Miguel Cotto. That's who it was. Right. And then Miguel Cotto beat the shit out of him in the rematch. And Shane Mosley, Sugar Shane Mosley, beat the fuck out of him.

When they found this- See, after he knocked out Miguel Cotto, when he beat him up in the 11th round, he stopped him, and it was a horrible stoppage, too. He beat the shit out of him. Then the Shane Mosley fight was the fight that he lost. That was the next fight. And during the wrapping of the gloves, Shane Mosley's camp was to go,

what the fuck is in his wraps? They recognized it and had him rewrap his hands, and then Shane Mosley beat his fucking ass. And then he beat Robert Garcia, and then Manny Pacquiao fucked him up, and then Miguel Cotto fucked him up. But the Miguel Cotto fight, the first one, it was bad. I mean, his face was busted up,

and that's when people had suspicions. But they didn't know until they saw the wrapping of the gloves. And then they looked at every one of his fights before that. And they would go, oh, this motherfucker had plaster in his gloves. Did you ever see the movie Fat City? Fat City. Stacey Keech. It's about club fighters down in Stockton, California. It's a fantastic movie.

I don't think I ever saw that. One of Jeff Bridges' first movies. Yeah? And John Huston directed it. One of the best fight movies ever. This fight that I was talking about earlier, the Louis Resto fight, this Billy Collins Jr. guy, he was an up-and-coming contender, and he was blinded in the fight, and he could never fight again.

Wow. This kid that he fought, Louis Resto, they pulled all the padding out of the gloves, and he just fucked up this guy's face to the point where you know he had detached retinas and he couldn't see straight and became an alcoholic afterwards when there he is right there look at his face wow yeah and it became a a really big a big story salt with a deadly weapon right there i think at the end of the other guy's life or at some point he admitted that he did it. There was some documentary about it that the guy finally admitted that he was using.

Oh, people have done that forever. People have done that forever. I was sparring with a guy once and I went to touch his gloves and I was like, what the fuck is in your gloves? And his padding had all been, it was those old style boxing gloves. The padding had all been pushed back and it was back, and it was all almost raw knuckle. People are assholes. Yeah, I've experienced that before. What's interesting now is that people are actually fighting bare knuckle.

There's a whole bare knuckle boxing organization out of Wyoming. Do you have all your knuckles? Yeah, they're all there. I got one that was broken. Oh, wow, It moves weird. Yeah. Clicks. That was

Bobby Salve's nose. Bobby Salve. Is there a more fucking Boston name than Bobby Salve? Fucking

Bobby Salve. I fucking hit him with a fucking overhand fucking left. He fucking went down like a fucking

soccer paredes. You know, what's good too is the rap. You know, when guys are going to fight, you know, like, well, no, it's like, too, is the rap. You know, when a guy's going to fight. Rapping at the hands?

Well, no. I used to beat guys like you up on the way to a fight. Practice falling, asshole. You know, all that shit. I like that. Just like in basketball, you know. Trash talk. Trash talk, yeah.

Sometimes it works. Because the thing about when someone gets inside your head, someone's really mean to you. I was kind of thinking that. When see liston and ali right yeah how could like it looked like liston was like afraid of him how could he be well you know he's stronger the reason why and this is ali did this on purpose he acted like a crazy person because he's like that Sonny Liston was a bully and Sonny Liston was a big scary man and what he felt like Sonny Liston would be afraid of

is a crazy person, someone who wasn't afraid of him. So in all the press conferences and all the different things leading up to the fight, he would scream at him. He would show up at Sonny Liston's house and honk the horn in the middle of the night and get on his lawn and scream and yell at him.

He did a lot of crazy shit to Sonny Liston to fuck with him psychologically. He wanted Sonny Liston to think that he was a crazy person and that, you know, that he would never stop. Yeah. And that's, I mean, he essentially did it. There was one point in time when they were, see, let me hear some of this. He made him know that he wasn't scared of him. Yeah. He let him know he wasn't scared of him.

And they were doing his blood pressure, and his blood pressure was so high, his heart rate was so high, they weren't going to let him fight. They're like, what are you doing? Sonny? No, no. Ali's. He had to calm himself down because he got himself worked up into a lather He was just so angry And so hyped up

Trying to act like a crazy person That when they were doing his pre-fight medicals They were like, hey, you can't fight There's something wrong with you And here it is They're calming him down Wow He had to relax and calm down i'm the greatest i'm the

greatest of all time i beat them all he was just so so smart at like psychological warfare there'd never been any anybody like him psychologically that could just he would first of all he was very funny he would say hilarious shit like howard cosell said to him tramp champ you seem very truculent he goes whatever truculent is if it's good on that and the timing the timing was just perfect he so he would you know say things that were funny he would say. He had that guy Bondini Brown behind him. Yeah, that's right. And they were always laughing and joking around together. He had a tremendous support team.

And on top of that, he could fight his fucking ass off. And he was a heavyweight that moved around like a middleweight. I mean, he was a 200- pound 215 220 pound man and he would shuffle and move and bob and weave and he would be out there almost like a welterweight you think he's the greatest boy it's hard to say who's the greatest heavyweight of all time but he's certainly in the conversation i mean you would have to say how would he have done against some of the bigger, stronger guys of the past, like a Lennox Lewis, who was in his prime, the high 240-pound range. He was a much bigger guy. But there was nobody like – you see, Ali also comes in two stages.

There's Ali before 1967 when they took his license away and there's ali after 1970 when he came back and when he came back he was never as fast he was never as fleet of foot because he didn't work out at all for three years he didn't do shit he didn't do shit no and when he came back his return fight um uh he just didn't look right he didn't look like he had the same movement his body didn't have the same musculature he just uh he fought um jerry no it wasn't jerry quarry jerry quarry that's what it was and he beat him you know he beat him up but he just didn't look like the muhammad ali that fought like do you still go to boxing matches yeah yeah Do you still go to boxing matches? Yeah, yeah. I still go to boxing matches.

I love watching on TV. Yeah. Yeah, I try not to go to too many live events anymore because I go to so many of them with the UFC. Yeah. You know, it's hard for me to go and, you know, go see more of them live. But I do enjoy them.

Yeah. It's nothing like being ringside for Golden Glo gloves have you ever been to a ufc fight no will you come i'll get you tickets sure next time we're in boston i'll hook it up all right we go to boston almost every year okay yeah yeah i love it put some big fights together in boston yeah i want you to go it's crazy it's wild you see it live i'll get you get you right there on the floor right in front of the cage. It's amazing. Yeah. It's something unique.

It'll be a good date. Yeah. It's way wilder. Like when you get used to watching the UFC, sometimes it's, I mean, I really appreciate boxing. I love it as a sport. I love it just as a martial art. I appreciate the elite of the elite.

But it's not as wild. The UFC, because there's takedowns and kicks and strangleholds and arm bars, it's just way more wild. Yeah. It's way more exciting. It's like a street fight. It's like a super technical street fight between trained killers. That's what it's like. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, I want to thank you. I want to thank you. No i want to thank you i want to thank you no i mean it i want to thank you i mean it listen when me when i was coming this is like a boxing show we just did who cares that's right they say you don't have it muhammad we could do whatever we want man that's the beautiful thing about podcasts you do whatever the fuck you want yeah but you were a big inspiration of mine huge you and and uh all those legends of boston comedy and to this day i think i saw some of the best comedy of my life ever um when i was a young man coming up and when i was uh just starting out and you

know opening for guys like you and you know you know you know what made it special is nobody was doing it as a job we were all just doing it because they said, I want to do this. And there was no forethought or afterthought. It was just, I mean, that's what I still love about performing, acting or stand-up is you're in the moment. Right, right. You're in the moment. Well, Fitzsimmons is a good buddy of mine and uh greg fitzsimmons we started out together yeah we talk about it to this day that back then we didn't think of having a career like what are you talking about a career the the best thing that we could ever

envision was one day would be able to pay our bills doing stand-up comedy that's right that's all we would hope for yeah because i would look at guys like you or all the the the boston guys that were getting you know they were making a living i was like these guys you know i used to i i watched those guys myself and i was in awe guys like kenny rogerson i say sure what a mind yeah steven right i mean they do things i can't do you know yeah and they the way they can create jokes. I did a movie with Rodney back to school, and I'd just watch him create these jokes. Yeah. You know, like the one line, like a haiku poem. I go to the dentist the other day for yellow teeth.

He says, wear a brown tie. You know? Your mind's going in one direction. Yeah. I'll tell you another guy who's a fantastic joke writer. The jokes he did you couldn't do now was Martin Mull. Martin Mull. Yeah, Martin Mull.

From that television show. Yeah, Fernwood Tonight. He was on the Tonight Show, and Johnny said, how are you doing? He said, Johnny, I'm as busy as jumper cables at a Puerto Rican wedding. You couldn't do that joke today he said he said uh watching roots for 20 minutes no one scored a basket i turned it off by the way that's martin maul that's not me and it's not joe did you like um that the documentary when stand-up stood out i did not participate in that how come because uh i didn't want my family to go through watching that

how so what do you mean it was about the decadence of it all and drugs and all that i i like to think you know the important thing is the work. Well, it was a little bit about the decadence, but it was also about this really unique thing. I was paranoid about that. Crimmins and those guys. Barry who passed away. I was very sad, but I was very happy to know him. I used to say to Barry, I'd be on a gig with Barry, and I'd say, Barry, these people are here to drink. You're making references to the third undersecretary of state's policy in frickin' Uganda.

They're not going to get it, so you can't get mad at them for not getting it. But he was, you know, I didn't agree with his politics at all, but he really meant it. Yes. So I respected that. Well, he's a very smart guy, and he also had extremely powerful ethics. Like, he was one of the reasons why no one respected any hacks in Boston. No. Any thieves were punished.

It was because of Barry. Like, you had to have original material. Absolutely. And everybody policed it. It was a very unique environment because rodney dangerfield said that he said when somebody steals a joke from me it's like like they're hitting one of my kids or something you know you do you feel that personal you know well you know how it is when you work it on a bit and it doesn't work well in the beginning

and then you know it takes months to figure out how to twist it and perfect it and then someone comes along and takes the finished product it's it's a horrific thing yeah you know but barry made sure that that environment of boston was not it was it wasn't just that it was there was no there was no thieves there was also no hacks like if you were doing like cop donut jokes or shit like that he would just fucking Spit in your face He didn't want none of that And he was a scary guy man I remember when I was an open mic I was so intimidated by him

When he started being nice to me I was like I made it through I was so worried that he was going to hate me I was so worried he was going to hate me Well I was worried that all those guys were going to hate me And you guys were always Isn't that funny're isn't that you're terrible you're terrible when you're first starting out and you see guys like you and gavin and i was always you know i was felt like i was never gonna be inside i was never gonna make it you know it's just oh yeah yeah yeah

yeah i was i felt like it was unattainable and you guys were the kings and now like I said you're open for me you're gonna you're gonna hit the big time that's what the movie's about by the way it's Boston comedy yeah we shoot it at the Kowloon

we shoot it downtown and we shoot it all over the city it's about Boston it's about comedy and I hope people come out and see it tonight

Thursday it's at the Lemire Music Hall here in Beverly Hills. Oh, is it really? This Thursday? Yeah. Oh, shit. Do you want to go? Yeah, I would love to go.

What time is it? 7.30. I have a show at 8. I'm at the improv, I think. Oh, are you? I think so. Oh, shit. Well, even if I can't make it on Thursday, I will definitely, yeah, I'm at the improv at 8 o'clock, shit. Well, even if I can't make it on Thursday, I will definitely.

Yeah, I'm at the Improv at 8 o'clock, unfortunately. I spent a lot of nights at the Improv. The Improv on Melrose in Hollywood? Yeah. It's a great spot. Bud was there. It was great. Those audiences were fantastic.

They still are to this day. I've been doing a lot of shows. I'm there tomorrow night. I'm there Thursday night as well. I'm trying to do more shows there. Kind of mix it up. Because I mostly just do the Comedy Store when I'm in town and the Ice House in Pasadena. Did you ever do that place?

I think so. How long are you in town for? Friday morning, I'm flying out. Oh, yeah? What are you doing tomorrow night? You want to do a set at the Improv? Sure, why not? Alrighty.

Why not? Steve Sweeney, ladies and gentlemen. What's tomorrow night? Tuesday. Tomorrow night's Tuesday. Yeah. Why not? Come on, baby, ladies and gentlemen. What's tomorrow night? Tuesday. Tomorrow night's Tuesday. Yeah, why not? Come on, baby. All right.

That'll be fun. You're going to be on. Yeah, you're going to be on for sure. Okay. Yeah. It'll be hot, and people will know you from the show. All right. Yeah.

Thank you. My pleasure. So when you decided to do this movie about Boston comedy, and you didn't want to do that when stand-up stood out documentary. That was many years ago. What is... So you knew it was just going to be about the decadence, but it was also documenting what stand-up was like

in the dingo days. I didn't know what it would be. So you just decided to walk away from it? Yeah, I didn't know. You know, it was one of those decisions. You know, it's like... Sometimes you make decisions that are really fucked up. Do you remember Ed McMahon had a show?

What was it? Star Search? No, it was something. Ed McMahon had this. Wasn't he Star Search? Yeah, it was Star Search. Was that what it was? Kevin James won.

So I'm auditioning for this show, and I'm saying, here I am auditioning for a show I don't want to do, and I've been turned down. So I said, wow, this is awful. I did a lot of that. I auditioned for sitcoms that I really didn't want, or movies, rather, that I really didn't want. Do you like that? No. No, I retired. I'm retired 100% from acting

Wow Yeah Last movie I did was A Kevin James movie But he's Kevin's buddy of mine Yeah And I would I would do something with him

Just for a goof But I don't enjoy acting I don't enjoy sitcoms I don't enjoy actors I like comics too much Yeah I like hanging around

With comedians so much That when I'm hanging around With actors I'm like God I wish you guys were comics you know really is that true because yeah comics are they don't have any filter they're loose you know where you stand with them you know where you stand with them if they like you they really like you and they're accepting of weird shit and flaws like yeah he's fucking crazy what are you gonna do it's funny though

you know people say shit like that like you know what they used to say to me say are all these comedians on drugs and i'd say no only the good ones fucking george carlin and richard pryor yeah yeah yeah well this they're the the wild impulsive people but a lot of them you know like bill hicks got off the drugs and was probably even better when he was off the drugs yeah i had a lot of great drug stories oh yeah you look back and there are great stories as long as you can look back yes and as long as they're just stories yeah as long as you're not in jail as long as you get through and they're funny when you look back but they're not so funny when you're in the middle of it well the ding ho when you guys were starting out that was that was the legendary place that was what we'd all i'd come a little bit too late i think the dino was always there was a bartender their name henry and i'd always ask this crazy question i'd say is he an asshole or is he chinese as though it's like

you know mutually exclusive you know chinese you know you don't know if they're? So it's like, you know, mutually exclusive. You know how Chinese, you don't know if they're pissed off. It's like, what do you want? Sweeney. Sweeney not here. Sweeney,

you know, I'm on the phone. Yeah, I'm Sweeney. Yeah, Sweeney not here. We don't know where Sweeney is. You know,

I'm Sweeney. I'm trying to get in there. Yeah, the ding-ho, that was wild. The guy lost the place in a Domino's game. No.

Yeah. His name was Sean Lee, and he was a compulsive gambler. So it was a Chinese restaurant with a theater or a set up? No, it was a restaurant, the Ding Ho Restaurant. But there was a stage. There was a stage, but one time it came in, the doors were locked, he lost it. And what you guys would think of as a card game, but apparently they played dominoes gambling. How did it get started?

How did Ding Ho get started? Cremins. Cremins started it. Yeah, Cremins. So what was going on before then? There was no comedy club. No comedy. What year was this?

Oh, I don't know. I don't remember anything like this. It had to be like the 70s? People say to me if it was the 90s, I don't remember a day of it. It closed in 84, right? I don't remember. I think it closed in 84 because it was gone. It was a legend when I came around.

I came around in 88. And people are like, oh, you missed the dingo. We all had our own shows there. I was Sunday nights, and I'd do all these crazy characters. I was just trying to find out what do I want to do. So I was doing characters. But one week that's when the magic happened is

Peter Lasali from The Tonight Show came in and at the time The Tonight Show was The Tonight Show. He saw Stephen Wright and the next week Stephen Wright was on The Tonight Show. It was amazing. Because there we were catapulted from inman square freaking chinese restaurant to johnny carson it was amazing it was wonderful when did

the other club start opening up it was after that when they when people found out there was some money in it you know but and then it was in the suburbs and yeah it was all over the place do you remember that there was one time where there was duck soup across from duck soup was nick's comedy stop down the street from nick's comedy stop was the connection and above it was comedy at the charles playhouse remember mike clark was booking comedy at the charles playhouse for a while so there was four clubs on the same block that's's right. In Boston. And you know what? They were all filled. The same guys were working in all of them. And everybody was shuffling around. Right, yeah.

But the shows were filled. It was like they couldn't get enough. It was great. Do you remember when Knicks was doing three shows in three different rooms? Yeah. They were doing the disco downstairs. They had the smaller middle room, and then they had the up room. One Saturday night, I did Stitches, which was on ComApp.

I did three shows there. I did four. I did about nine, which was on ComApp. I did three shows there. I did four. I did about nine shows in one night. Wow. And at the end of the night, I was just saying to the audience, did I already do that joke? And I was so tired. Yeah.

I'd be like setting it up, and then what's the fucking punchline of this shit? There's a point of diminishing return. Sometimes you're not even thinking about what you're doing. Right. And they're not laughing. And then you say, well, you realize you're not saying it right. You're not delivering it. And then you deliver it and they laugh and then

there's this other voice in your mind saying wow that's interesting if i change my voice they'll laugh and it's like me watching me do this yeah it's crazy yeah you know i mean i can remember if you want to hear a horrible coke story i was down in new york i was up for a show called not I remember that. and the guy says, they're not here yet. And I said, oh, all right. He said, do you want to do a line? I said, all right. You know, so I did it. And so now time is going faster because you're fucked up. And I said, are they here yet?

He said, well, you just asked five minutes ago. No, they're not here. Do you want to do another line? I said, yeah, okay, I'll do another. So by the time I'm on stage, it's like, you know, there's no comedy, you know, when you're jamming. It's like the intensity is fucking unbelievable when you're on stage like this. Right. So they were there to see me.

And I go out and I did this and I was like setting up a joke and not doing the punchline and starting shit and ideas and it was fucked up. It was like Charlie Sheen, you know what I mean? There's no dots to put together. It's not supposed to make any sense. I go off and I said to the kid, how was it? He said, how was it? You're supposed to do 25 minutes. You did four minutes. I said, I thought I was out there for like an hour.

It was fucking awful. Jesus, when I think of those days. When did you quit? 26 years ago. What was the reason? You know, when I talk to kids, they say that sometimes. And the closest thing I can say is something we say in the program.

I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was always exhausted. Yeah. Yeah. Always tired. Right. Yeah. So then I came back to life, you know, and now I enjoy every day.

Beautiful. Yeah. And I enjoy being on this show. I enjoyed having you. Thanks, buddy. Thanks, man. I appreciate you. Thank you. For real. All right. Thanks, sir. I hope we can do it again. We will. Beautiful Yeah And I enjoyed being on this show Enjoyed having you Thanks buddy Thanks man Appreciate you For real

Alright Thanks sir I hope we can do it again We will And you're gonna be at the improv Tomorrow night 8pm show Alright you know what

I'll come and watch you Come on motherfucker You do what's set Are you on at 8? Yes Well I'm on I close I'm on last so

I'll go on at like 9 Something like that Yeah I'll do 5 minutes Alright Beautiful Steve Sweeney ladies and gentlemen And the movie comes out Sweeney So I'll go on at like 9 Something like that Yeah I'll do 5 minutes Alright Beautiful Steve Sweeney ladies and gentlemen And the movie comes out when Sweeney

You can get it on iTunes In a couple of days Pre-ordered Thanks sir Alright Thank you Joe Was it good? Thank you.