The Joe Rogan Experience - #2455 - Donnell Rawlings

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Donnell Rawlings is a comedian, actor, and host of “The Donnell Rawlings Show” podcast. His most recent special, “Chappelle’s Home Team Presents: Donnell Rawlings: A New Day,” is streaming on Netflix.www.netflix.com/title/81507172www.youtube.com/@thedonnellrawlingsshowwww.donnellrawlings.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Rogan podcast, checking out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. It's unfortunate. In any form? You know, like, I know it's weird. If I eat a burger, it's different if I eat a steak. Steak is a problem?

Yeah, I don't know if my digestive system, just like you're too old and fucking... How old are you? I'm 58, too. I eat mostly meat. I don't think it's age. What is it then? Well, what do you eating it with? Tito's.

Tito's. Tito's vodka? It can't be that, right? No, I'm eating a steak and I wash it down. I eat a steak with Tos. And I wash it down with Tito's and tonic because it resembles H2O so sometimes I get thrown off until I do it. What? Yeah, I think I'm better.

Titos and tonic resembles water? the look of it. It's clear. That's all matters to you? Yeah. I know at some point I need to change my life. I'm at the age now that it's like I look at certain food and I'm like, oh my God, it looks good but you know you can't handle that. I think this is when I really really need to be in love because I need to be with somebody that understands when I go places and when I want to pick out, they got to be like, he can't eat that.

Oh, right. He's going to sit up. He's going to be thrown up. You're a female handler. A female handler. They call it geriatric. Like, this is right here. This is what the streets are saying.

Most men get to an age. It's a geriatric shit. When you just smash all the women you want to do and everything, now you're going to have to worry about somebody helping you with your pill diet, helping you with your dietary needs, and everything. And they say that's a lot of times when men fall in love, when they need somebody to take them to the golden ears. Oh, when you're about to be out of here,

you need somebody to say, don't do that. You got to mash this food up. You got to chop it up. But I'm having digestive issues sometimes. With steak, huh? It's red meat. I want to say, and I'm a fan of it.

So if you eat like a bowl of pasta with the T-dos, no problem? That's not a problem. Interesting. But it's definitely red meat. You should go to one of those doctors that checks people for allergies. Food food doctor? Yeah. I don't want one of them those.

I had to date an Asian. I mean, I had to date a Haitian. chick, they interview really, really better. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They stab you with pillows and shit. You want me. I have pain in your neck. Is there any particular reason, Joe, and I haven't been here in a while?

Is there any particular reason why I am doing your show during Black History Month? No, you asked to come on. You reached out to me. I reached out to you. I didn't. You could have reached out to me in July, I would have said yes. You got an open invitation. You know that. I haven't opened the invitation. But this is when I don't know.

I say, can I come through? You said, this is what you told. You said, I have a guest. And then you called back. I don't know if Jamie said, you know what month this is. Right? I don't know if he ended you. And you caught me right back.

I moved somebody. I moved somebody for you because I knew you were coming here on a Monday. I had someone booked. Was it a Caucasian person? I don't know. I don't remember. Jamie? You know it was a white man or black man?

No, you know what? Did I get, did I bump a white person for black person for black? Actually, it might have been Michael Jire White because he's here tomorrow. Yeah. So it was probably. Michael. I just probably moved him a day. But I appreciate dude being accommodating because I felt like it was time for me to come back. I haven't been here a while. You can come on any time. I really appreciate that. I hold that to be true. Come on. I know that's true too. You know I love you. Yeah. I want some of that gum too, man. I'm sorry. The neuro gum. Do we have any jam? Yeah, that stuff's the shoot. I know. Whenever you say something is the shit is the shit. Yeah. Well, what can I can do about my? I can't do anything about my diet. Sorry. Whoops, I hit the mic.

Yeah, you can. You just, you know, you should go to a doctor and find out if there's like, there might be something particularly about you that red meat doesn't agree with you. But it might just be what you're eating with the red meat more than the red meat itself, you know? That's what I would imagine. I would imagine it's not actually red meat. I would imagine it's what you're eating with it. It might be. And I'm going to check into it.

because as they say in the streets, I'm of that big age when you have to be considerate of a whole bunch of things so that's what I have to do. I have to do that. Do you exercise at all? A little bit.

Usually doing sexual intercourse is when I get most of my cardio. Get your push-ups in? Yeah, and it's not as strong. Damn, man. You have to get... I don't know if this applied to everybody. You get to an age

where you start looking at your history and you're like, damn, 2000, what's my best years? Like right now, just give up. You give up. I don't put no pressure in it. I give up.

I start asking what's your shoe size is or whatever. I'd rather go shopping than really try to pound somebody out for three hours. I'm at that age now where I have, I call it, certain times. Like, you're going to get a work? I probably shouldn't give you that gum. That gum's going to be a real problem on the microphone. Is it, is it? Okay.

People are going to get annoyed with you. All right. I don't know what to do. Just chew it a little. and spit it out. Okay. You'll get the effects of it pretty quickly anyway. I'm at the age where my best work is like holidays.

Holidays. Like, I'm an animal. Why don't you hire a trainer? You got some money. And what are the training going to do? Get you in shape. I think I need a therapist before I get a trainer. I mean, you got to take one step of the time.

I got to get my mind right before I get my body right. Wouldn't you agree? No, getting your body right will help get your mind right. I think that's some truth of that. I think that you may be right about it. Oh, 100%. Getting your body right fixes your mind. Without a doubt.

I will say, I'm at my best. I'm at my peak when it's a holiday to celebrate. Because you're rested. I'm rested. It's more incentive. Like, if you want me to really smash good time, you consider like Valentine's Day, Christmas, Kwanza, you can get seven good days.

but to expect me to be at my best on just a regular Tuesday or a Wednesday is not going to happen. I need more incentive. Well, it's also drinking. You like to drink. Why would you say that? I know why you would say that. Come on.

I've seen you. I've been with you. I've drank with you. Okay, then that's a good point. All right. There's cigarettes. You was there. You brought a pack with you.

Right? There's that. Those are not good. There's a lack of exercise. I saw one of your podcasts. I forget. how you explained what made you not want to smoke anymore. What was that?

This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one website platform that helps you stand out online. And I can say that because my website is powered by Squarespace. Joe Rogan.com is a Squarespace website. Squarespace makes it easy to secure the best name for your business and they provide privacy and security tools to ensure your domain remains protected. Head to Squarespace.com slash Rogan for a free trial. And when you are ready to launch, use the offer code Rogan to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Cigarettes are a cognitive enhancer. They are. It's a fact. Nicotine is a cognitive enhancer. There's no doubt about it. It's fact. And it does things to your mind. It stimulates your mind in a way that very few other things do.

That's why a lot of intellectuals, a lot of professors. use nicotine. A lot of academics use nicotine. A lot of people that rely on their brain use a lot of writers use nicotine. And there's different delivery methods that have different effects. Unfortunately, smoking has a very potent instantaneous effect. And that's why people like it. But it comes with a cost. Right. The physical health, you know, repercussions of cigarettes are well-known. Yeah. Not good. And also, you're smoking marlbrose. There's a, we had a doctor on the other days that thinks that. Marlboro lights, don't just, I'm not with that.

Regular cigarettes are not nearly, like, American spirits are not nearly as bad for you as these. I understand it. They have some type of, the American spirits, I'm not even advocating for what you should, shouldn't smoke, but they say that's supposed to be the most natural if there's such a thing. It's just tobacco, I believe.

Is that a fact? Nope. No? What's in there besides tobacco? I don't know. I've been tried it. They got, I don't know how all this lawsuit ended up, but they got sued for the advertising of saying it's additive-free and all that.

Oh. Oh, did they? Yeah. What are the additives? I've at that side of it. Well, let's look into it. I've tried to look. I mean, there's a big, here's like the website about the lawsuit.

What's the accusation? That, uh, here you go. It's on the screen. Here we go. Lawsuit questions natural claims. Natural American Spirit cigarettes are made by Santa Fe, natural tobacco company and parent company Reynolds America. RJ Reynolds, they fuck with you.

American Spirits has been sold in the U.S. since 1985, heard under the original name, original American Spirit. Organic. Oh, you got us. He fucks. Unadulterated tobacco. Sue claims such marketing language as endeared American Spirit's cigarettes to a core group of

smokers who believe that the natural tobacco and the cigarette makes them a healthier alternative. Despite cigarette sales declining 17% between 2009-2014, American Spirit sales have increased 86% over the same period. Huzzah. A regulatory filing on the rental. American website states, American Spirit is the leading super premium cigarette brand that is a top 10 best-selling cigarette brand, priced higher than most other competitive brands, and is differentiated from key competitors through its use of all-natural, additive-free tobacco, including styles made with organic tobacco. But words like all-natural and additive-free on American Spirit's labeling, the suit says, belies the fact that Santa Fe Reynolds adds ammonia to their cigarettes to maximize the amount of nicotine of smoker receipts. receives with the result that American spirits contain significantly more free-based nicotine than other major cigarette brands.

So you're actually getting high off of cigarettes? 100%. I get high off them because I don't smoke them all the time. So if I smoke a couple cigarettes a week, it's a lot. And Newport's probably like 10 times worse thing. Menthol cigarettes probably 10 times worse for you a body. I was talking a cat about that. Yeah, I was asking him like, why do you like menthols? and he was speaking on behalf of the black community.

He said, we like things that are more potent. I believe that that's possible part of it, but I also believed that back in the day, and this supply, I don't know if I talked about this, it was certain brands that targeted certain communities just for the loyalty of it. Yeah.

And I think Newport was targeting. I don't know if it was a situation when Newport came out. They were spending more ad money, were advertising and everything, because I don't know if I shared this story with you, but Pepsi was a company, that did that, where they targeted, the black community.

So I think even though, I understand we said more potent, but I think it was something that was in our community, whether that was like cheaper prices or whatever. And I think it's generation and generations, like, you need to do this because black people did this because it was cheaper. I think that that might be the case for Newport. Probably both.

What is the menthol effect? What is the difference in the way of menthol cigarettes? I know when I smoke menthol, I sound like cat whims in that way. They ruined. That's one of the reasons I had to downgrade to like, Some people think that I started smoking Marlboro Lights because I started dating white women, which is more appealing. Unless you dated white women from the Midwest, then she probably smoking new person drinking Pepsi's and Coca-Cola just like you. But I think that's why.

But I got so many bad habits that I need to change. Here we go. Our sponsor, our AI sponsor, Perplexity says the menthol affected cigarettes come from the chemical menthol itself, which is added as a flavoring and a sensory agent to the tobacco. Menthal is naturally found in peppermint and other mint plants. It could also be made synthetically in a lab. Menthol activates cold sensitive nerd receptors in the mouth, throat, and airways, creating a cooling sensation when you inhale smoke. It's a mild anesthetic, numbing effect that reduces pain and irritation from hot, harsh cigarette smoke,

making it feel smoother. Menthal can suppress the cough reflex and dull early warnings, or early warning signs of airway irritation, which make it easier to inhale more deeply and more often. Menthal reduces the perceived harshness of nicotine and smoke, the minty taste and smell, plus the cooling feel act as a pleasant sensory cues that many smokers come to associate with satisfaction and craving. Menthol can alter nicotine metabolism and the way nicotine acts on brain receptors, which may increase nicotine's reinforcing addictive effects.

In short, the menthol effect is not from nicotine but from added menthol, which cools and numbs the airways, masks irritation, and can make cigarettes feel smoother and more addictive without making them any safer. So, menthol cigarettes appeal to black people because it's a cool cigarette. It's cool. That's what, it makes so much sense why the brand cool cigarette because it makes you, that makes sense. That's why they call it cool, I bet.

Damn, what white people do to destroy my community, right? Destroy everybody. Yeah. They don't give a fuck about anybody. Cool and cold. Half ain't wide body, ain't soul, mild, ain't bold. Cool ain't cool, Newport is. Oh, because that was like a take on cools because people used to smoke cools.

The cools exist anymore? In jail. Only in jail? I think that, I think, I don't know what the ratio. The ratio is what cigarette gets you more money. in a dice game. But whenever I hear people telling war stories,

they're like, man, I got a pack, I got a carton of cools for a bag of the reader or something, but the value of a cool cigarette is higher in prison. Isn't it crazy

that they give you cigarettes in prison? That's crazy. It's like the only drug you can get in prison. Yeah, and those, you can't get alcohol, right?

Well, you can get hooch. Well, you can't get alcohol, but they make their own type of. But it's all under the table. Yeah. Yeah. But I think in prison, the things that hold the most value, I think it's tang, right?

It's that artificial flavored drink you do. I think that it's... Astronaut shit. Yep. Cigarettes, Doritos. I heard honey buns hold their value. And I heard candy bars. But candy bars, you got to be particular with that.

Because if you offer, this is what I hear. If you offer a person a certain amount of candy bars, then what I understand is, that you're inviting them to have sexual intercourse with you. Interesting. Yeah. Candy bars. Yeah. Like you,

I don't think. Do you want some candy bars? And that's like code. Yeah, it's like candy bar. Yeah. Pizza. Mr. Goodbar for this good bar. Oh, okay.

This is only, not that I've had those experiences, Joe, but this is the times that I frequent the streets, which aren't anymore. Not too often. These are the stories that they tell. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And these facts, you don't need them for anything but for barbershop talk, but these are the conversations that I have.

Yeah. That I've heard people have. It's interesting how different brands market to different people. And I mean, how do they figure it out? Like, what do they work? Like, that's where it's evil, right? Like, advertising itself, I don't have a problem with. But there is something weird about deceptive advertising that's legal, you know?

Well, they do a history on what people like. I was watching or reading a story about the people that started Forever 21. I forget what the brand was. It was some Koreans from South Korea, not to be confused with Kim Jong-un in those people. But they were tailors or something. They started a small boutique. And what they would do was they would have these pieces of clothes. And they would really pay particular attention to what colors people like, what was selling the most, whatever.

And that's what they buy. And one of the things that made Forever 21 so popular because they had really inexpensive, the clothes weren't expensive, but they was turning them over so quick. You know, so people do case studies and see what people attracted to. I know with black people, you put lemon pepper on anything. It's going to go out of the roof. You could do lemon pepper, chicken wings, lemon pepper, french fries, anything, lemon pepper. They're going to go.

I don't know who started the whole lemon pepper craze. But you limit pepper anything, black people are going to buy it. That's interesting, like, how white people are associated with very bland foods. You know, macaroni, cheese, mashed potatoes, mayonnaise. And you know why you're connected with that blandness? Because the way you pronounced it. Macaroni and cheese? You'd never, ever say, if you tell somebody, if you say, and you would be able to be invited to the cookout joke, you know, people like you.

If you say, hey, guys, I've come. to the cookout, right? And I'm bringing macaroni and cheese. You're going to get uninvited to the cookout. How should I say? Mac and cheese. Mac and cheese. Yeah, you can't say macaroni and cheese.

Nobody ever does that. Okay. They would look at you as a spy. You would get invited and be uninvited. Well, I'm a different type of white person because I'm Italian and we're associated with spicy food. Very strong flavors. Yeah, but.

It's a different, like Italian people don't like bland food. They like very spicy food. You're not going to say, I'm bringing baked ziti to the barbecue. You'd be like, I'm bringing ziti, right? Yeah, I would say bake ziti. Yeah, because there's different kinds of ziti. You know, there's ziti that you bake and then the ziti that you just boil and put, you know, marinero sauce on. But I will say this.

As much as, you know, community would make fun of white people and their lack of seasoning, that can save your life. Lack of seasoning can save your life? Yeah. I feel so. When you think about, you look at somebody, one of the most, the country, home-cooked soul food spot, the one ingredient that's in everything that you taste right off the rip is salt. How good is salt for it? At all.

It's all bullshit. Then why do we think salt is all bullshit? If you feel a little off, it's okay. It's February. Everybody feels a little off in February. It's darker. It's colder. You probably already gave up on some New Year's resolutions.

But you don't have to wait until spring to get your. right again. It all starts with making small changes to your routine and one of those is AG1. It's not some big dramatic reset. It's one small thing that you can do every morning to keep consistent when everything else is chaos. One scoop done. AG1 can help support your energy, your gut health and can support you through the darker evenings. It gives that foundational support from morning to night and it all comes down to getting your daily nutrition. There's more than 75 in including antioxidants, minerals, probiotics, and functional mushrooms to support your immune health and overall health. And this is the time of year when it can really help.

If you want to check it out, go to drinkag1.com slash Rogan and you'll get three AG1 travel packs, vitamin D3 plus K2, and other gifts free in your welcome kit with your first subscription. That's drinkag1.com slash Rogan. Salt is an essential mineral. You need salt to survive. Salt is not the problem. They associate salt with high blood pressure, salt with this, salt. It's not true.

It's bullshit. What type of salt? Is it different salt? No, salt's not bad for you. Well, first of all, there's iodine salt, which is actually good for you because it contains iodine. They add iodine to it, which is good for you. But salt is not a bad thing. I mean, you shouldn't have too much salt.

So, look, if you eat enough salt. Joe, you can't be the president of educate me with this. So all of these years, these people getting their toes chopped off, amputated? That's not why. That's not why. If you're getting diabetes, it's usually from sugar. Okay. You know, there's been a lot of misinformation that's spread because of actual scientists that were bribed by the sugar industry. So the sugar industry, they paid a bunch of Harvard scientists.

It was Harvard, right? I believe it was. They didn't even give them a lot of money. Was it the 1950s or 1960s, Jamie? Do you remember? So this has all been outed now, but what they did was they tried to associate saturated fat and foods with saturated fat with being responsible for heart disease. And they did that to try to get the blame off of sugar.

Because sugar is fucking terrible for you. It's terrible in basically every way, especially added sugar. So why are all of these diseases that we speak of are more, more, happening in the black community than in the white community. It's diet. It's 100%. It's sugar.

It's processed food. It's diet. It's sugar. It's sugary drinks. It's the amount of sugar. Like if you, say if you drink like a one liter Pepsi, the amount of sugar that is,

okay, let's find that out. How much sugar is in a one liter Pepsi? If you drink several leaves a day. One of them, I believe, is more sugar than you're ever supposed to have in a day. Pepsi is the one, and that's why. Well, it could be Coca. Coca-Cola could be Pepsi, Mountain Dew,

pick your poison. I think it's 100% Pepsi. Well, Pepsi's, I don't know, does Pepsi have more sugar than Coca-Cola? I don't know. You know, Coca-Cola is one of the only things that's still flavored with cocaine leaf. Sugar content, 115, 123 grams in a one-liter bottle. That's a crazy amount of sugar.

25 teaspoons. 35 sugar cubes. God, damn. That's 130%. 138% of the recommended daily value of sugar. That's where people are getting type 2 diabetes. They're getting it from excess sugar. Specifically, excess sugar.

Like, in a liquid form, your body does not know what the fuck to do with that. Because nowhere in nature do you get sugar in a liquid form like that. Like, even orange juice. Right. Like, people think orange juice is good for you. It's not. Like, drinking orange juice, yeah, you're going to get some vitamin D, but you're also going to get a vitamin C rather, but you're also going to get a gigantic dose of sugar that has no fiber in it.

But is it a different type of sugar and fruits and vegetables than what you get off the counter? You get fructose rather than high fructose corn syrup. Sugar from fruit is the best sugar for you because it's attached to fiber. And that's a slow release sugar. Like if you eat an apple, and apples aren't bad for you. It's a natural way that your body consumes sugar. Apples were bad for Adam. I don't even know if it was an apple

It was a fruit It was a fruit from the tree of knowledge The tree of... It was an apple It was an apple But it wasn't an apple tree What specifically does the Bible refer to As the fruit?

Adam and Eve Adam You know the truth? Eve never talked to God Adam talked to God Adam told God Not to eat the fruit There's nowhere in the Bible Does it say that Adam went and told Eve

this is why we should start not just shutting women down to listening to them it all starts is all beautiful Genesis does not specifically specify rather what kind of fruit Adam ate only that it calls it fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil yeah so it's not necessarily an apple we call it an apple the text never names the species apple fig etc the Hebrew word is perry a general term meaning fruit without a botanical detail Where the apple idea came from over time, Jewish and Christian interpreters proposed many candidates, including fig, grape, pomegranate, citron, and others.

Now common ideas that an apple developed later in European tradition helped by wordplay in Latin and old French where the words evil and apple or fruit sounded or were spelled similarly. So it's not necessarily an apple. I really don't know what to believe, but I feel like I get so much more information when I come here. I don't know if people understand that. Well, the crazy thing is that, I mean, I've found this out recently because I've actually been reading the Bible. That there's no reference whatsoever to Adam telling Eve you're not supposed to eat the fruit from the plant with the knowledge of good and evil. I never knew that. Yeah.

I just know it was a white woman with an apple and his shit got fucked up after that. What happened was God created Adam. This is what Genesis says. God created an Adam and then told Adam, go and name all that. the animals. And then, when he was done with that, Adam made Eve. But he never said, it never says in the Bible, Adam told Eve, do not eat the apple. Who's given us this misinformation? Well, the problem with the Bible is, first of all, that it was an oral tradition forever. So it was an oral tradition for a long time before it was ever written down. That it was

written down in a bunch of ancient languages. It was written down in ancient Hebrew, it was written down in Aramaic, Aramaic, and then when you translate ancient Hebrew to first they translated it to Latin, and then they translated it to Greek and all these other, maybe Greek first. I forget which one was first. But either way, the translations miss a lot of the language. It's a very complicated. Ancient Hebrew is a very complicated language. And numbers double as letters in ancient Hebrew.

So ancient Hebrew doesn't have numbers. All their words have a numerical value to them. What do you think makes people so connected to the Bible? Is it because of wanting to believe in something? Definitely wanting to believe in something. And then specifically, if you look at like the teachings of Jesus Christ, if you follow them, I think it'll lead to a better life. I think it makes you a better person, makes you a better member of the community.

It reinforces community. It's like a really good way to live your life. So I think people that live that way, that actually live that way, they're better examples of human beings. So that makes it reinforced. But it's also people, there's a lot of other religions that people believe in that don't have those aspects to them. People want to believe things. People want to believe in things, even if you like, like Scientology, people deeply believe in Scientology. And we know it was written by a science fiction author who was a bad science fiction author.

El Ron Hubbard wrote some terrible books. like that guy would just bang books out he never rewrote shit everything was a first draft just clunked he wrote more fiction than any human being that's ever lived and they also wrote Scientology

and people believe in it I do believe people I think people like you say people want to if your life is fucked or whatever they want to be able to say okay this is my savior if I believe in this it's gonna get me on the right track 100% and then with that with these

like Drewski just did a skit that went viral right and it was like he was making fun of the mega churches and everything. But these churches, like they give these people something to believe in, make them feel better, and they charge of people. Do you think that there should be a separation? If I inspire you, if my writings or my speeches inspire you to want to do something and change your life and be more financially secure, do you think these people entitled's like, okay, almost like agencies,

if I get you to work or get you there, should you hit me off? Or the mega churches, is this so wrong for people just to pour all their money into them? Or are they giving these people something to believe in? If that's the case, do I post to get a piece of that? I think they're praying on people's need to believe in things. And I think they're very predatory. And I think that's why they're flying private jets and driving Rolls Royces and living in mega mansions on giant ranches.

And they're doing it all off of donations of people that are barely getting by. That's a lot of it. You know, I think it's a scam that's legal. I think if we were a just and righteous society, it wouldn't be legal. Right. I mean, you're taking advantage of people when they need something to believe in, and you're asking for all their money. Like, I remember I was watching this guy on TV once, like, tell evangelists are the worst. And this guy was saying that if you are broke, you should borrow money to donate it to the church, and it will be paid back to you tenfold.

That God will pay you. back tenfold. And then he had all these examples of people that did it and they would call in and say, I was $1,000 in debt and this and that, but I borrowed $100 and I donated to you. And now all of a sudden I'd drive a Rolls-Royce, and it's all horseshit. But those are all desperate, desperate people. Desperate people. Those are the same people that I'm going to spend $30 on the lottery every day for like fucking 50 years and don't know how much that was a scam.

That's another scam. Not only is that a scam. Here's the scam about the lottery. Not only does, like, say if everyone pumps money into the lottery, say you buy $100 with the tickets and Jamie buys $100 dollars to a ticket and I buy $100. So there's $300 in the lottery. There's not even $300 available to win. Right. So, and then if you win, you don't get all the money.

You get the money over a long period of time. Right, right, right. But if you take the second option, it's a significantly, like here's a good example of it. Speaking of the Epstein files, his company, Zorro Trust. I didn't like that transition. You look me right in my eyes and said, speaking of the Fisd, we were talking about it before the podcast. MCC came to see you.

No, Epstein did not fucking come to see me. They loved your show. Yo. He was a number one fan. First of all, I never. You don't know. They came to West Palm Improb because you're a famous comedian and you were playing in the town where he lived.

So what are you saying? Nothing. But what I'm saying is that... What I'm saying is Epstein won the lottery. His company, Zorro Trust, won an $80 million lottery. And then they took the payoff. And the payoff was only $30 million. A ticket or you mean in corporation?

What do you mean when you say... His company bought a ticket for the lottery. Yes, Zorro Trust, which is his company. They won the lottery, which is very suspicious. Not only that, he won the lottery. right after he was arrested and went to jail for fucking kids or having sex or whatever he was sexual hand jobs whatever it was so there's nothing wrong with a such a age no but when they're underage girls probably not so then when he went um and got the lottery money the company took the payoff

the payoff out of an 80 million dollar payment the 80 million dollar jackpot was only 30 million so if you want the money you take 30 before so not only did they take 50 so not only did they take 50 out of the 80, but then you think about how many people spent money buying lottery tickets. It's way more than 80 million. So they make money off of that, and then they make money off of the fact that you want the payoff instead of the over 30 years. It doesn't matter what the jackpot becomes. They never can't lose.

They can't lose. It's stealing money from people that are desperate. It's legalized gambling where the house always wins. Right. Like, let's find that out. Like, let's say, let's find an average jackpot of megabucks and find out how much money actually goes into it, how much money people spend versus how much money the payout is. So when this, all lotos are state regulated, right? Right?

I don't know. I don't know who regulates them. Okay. So they get, say, they get $100 million from people trying to win a billion dollars. It's because the state regulated, do they have to pay taxes to the government for the money? The lot? No, it's the state. Well, the government owns it.

So it's a whatever the, not only that, you pay taxes on it. So say if you get that, yes. Yeah, yeah, of course. So say if you take that $30 million payout, you don't even get $30 million. Then you have to pay taxes on that $30 million. So they get money from that too. So they can't fucking lose. But for a person that's never seen, barely seen $1,000 anywhere.

Anything with a million or they're going to be excited about and take it before. Exactly. Exactly. And over time, most people are not going to win. So most people are dumping money into it. There was a story of a young young lady. I don't know exactly what it was. I think she won some type of lottery where they gave her two options.

She would get, I think it was like a payout of like two or three million right up front. Or they give her, I think it was like $20,000 every month for as long as she lived. Yeah, that's how they do it. And she did this. Well, people think that it's kind of crazy. But if you consider the fact that she was probably 2021, her life expectancy probably, she was white, so she probably lived to 132. You know what I'm saying? She looked like, that was a smart.

A lot of people would not understand that. That was a smart thing. I don't think it's for the rest of your life. I think it's until it reaches that number. I don't think they're going to give you money for the rest of your life. Well, maybe I was reading the head-like. Maybe it's a different kind of lottery that I'm not aware of. Maybe I think it was something as long as she lives.

That sounds crazy. Yeah. All right, here it is. Typical mega-million jackpot run. Total ticket revenue is usually several times the advertised jackpot. But there's no single fixed average because sales vary enormously with the jackpot size. Still, you can get a good ballpark. So around 50% of ticket revenue goes into the overall prize pool.

So the government makes 50% right off the bat. Right. So if it's $100 million payout, they already made $100 million. So that's $200 million is what they made. They throw in $100 million for everybody. Of that prize pool, roughly two-thirds to three-quarters is allocated to the jackpot with the rest-funding lower-tier prizes. So that means even if there's $200 million, out of $100 million, only two-thirds of it goes

into the big jackpot. And that means the jackpot is typically in the order of one-third of total ticket sales that run. And then out of that one-third, say if it's $100 million, or with the, case it was 80 million he took the payout which was 30 million so they make 50 on top of that and then on top of that you pay taxes on that 30 it's a crazy scam what do with the money whatever the fuck they want i think they probably i think they in certain neighborhoods i think they probably pump a certain amount of winning tickets into a neighborhood just to get you addicted to

keep going in there and spend your money well it's supposed to be random you know i don't know how much oversight. Look, if a guy like Jeffrey Epstein can win, I don't know how much oversight is it. I know back in Boston when I lived there, Whitey Bulger won. See if this is true. I think he won the lotto twice, which is crazy.

Whitey Bulger, who was there? Whitey Bulger was a South Boston mob boss in the 1980s when I lived there, the 1980s and 90s. A mob boss? Yeah, he was a dangerous. dangerous guy. He was the guy

that that movie that Leonardo DiCaprio starred in with Jack Nicholson. What was that movie, Jamie? Remember that movie that was based on Whitey Bulger?

The Departed? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was based on Whitey Bulger. He was a gangster? Oh, yeah. Terrifying gangster. Yeah.

What was his demise? He was actually a fucking FBI informant. Not only was he a gangster, he was working with the FBI and they were letting him get away with shit. because he was throwing other people under the bus.

I think there's a different, I mean... They wound up catching him in Santa Monica. Well, I've found that... Hunting Whitey. About that Whitey Bulger won the mass millions lottery. About that time. Yeah. Yeah, he won the fucking lottery, man.

So this is what it says here. What does it say? I think it was more of a scheme than they actually won the... But it's always taking money. It's probably a way to, like, launder money. Yeah. Oh, 100% to wait a laundered money. So the way it would work was, like, say if you lived in the community and you won the lottery ticket,

maybe they would give you money for your lottery ticket, then he would get it. And that way, it would show that this is where he got his income from. Like, these guys would all own businesses. Right. But the reason why they would own businesses is so they could show why they drive a Cadillac, why they have a mansion, why they have this, because they have legitimate businesses. But really, these businesses were scams. My father convinced my family that he was a real estate agent for years to come and find out he was a heroin king paying in D.C. for years.

All we needed was an excuse. He's selling real estate, all right? That's hilarious. So he ordered the real winner to sign the ticket over with Whitey and two associates paying $2.3 million in cash for 50% of the winnings. Bulger himself paid Michael Linsky $700,000, although Linsky lost money in the deal. He really had no choice. down to selling the ticket or risking his life. Yeah, so that's how it usually wills.

Works. So he was a snitch? Whitey was a snitch. Yeah. He was a snitch and he got caught in Santa Monica. Snitch or whistleblower? There is a difference. No, he was a snitch.

Whistleblowers are people that snitch of people in higher profile positions like corporate America. But what I'm finding out. No, he wasn't a whistleblower. He was an actual snitch because he was turning other people in. But he was a kingpin. Is this true? And I don't want to make everything about race. is that phrase snitches

get snitches more prevalent in a white community or the black community or it's across the board? I think it's across the board isn't it? Like the black community is famous for keeping their mouth shut when someone gets shot or when someone does something like when cops come and question people. I don't know if that's the truth anymore because what I'm... Not anymore but that was the thing with the mafia too. Yeah. The mob would never rat out.

It's just going to jail. It's interested now because now I see like especially in my community so many people like rat, I got the paperwork and everything. And now it feels like, like that motto of being loyal is dead. It's like people now, they

getting caught with shit in a minute. They get caught, they snitch on everybody. And there's no repercussions when they come home. There's no repercussions. I don't see that as much. I see so many people that are like saying whatever the fuck they want to do, whatever. And they still out here just living their

life's normal like in nothing fucking happened. Well, with the mob, it was always like, if you rat it on the mob, you were a dead man. You were a dead man. Your family was probably dead. They'd burn your house down. And people kept their mouth shut because of that. And so guys would go to jail all the time and never open their mouth, and they would be rewarded when they would get out. And they'd have a party for him, celebrate.

That's in Goodfellas. You kept your mouth shut. You never said nothing. That was the whole thing. But the whole thing, I used to live by. That changed, though, like with John Gotti. Like, the government. No, Sammy the Bulldogs.

Sammy the Bull. And it wasn't just them. Like, everyone was snitching on everybody. It's like they got these guys. And, you know, we had Donnie Brasco in the studio. From, from, what, from, the Bronx. Johnny Depp movie. It was called Donnie Brasco.

Okay. He. Well, why am I confused that with, what's his real, Johnny Brasco's real name? Joe. I'm not confused. Bronx, that's not Bronx. Joe Pistone. Joe Pistone.

That's not nothing to do with Bronx tale, right? No, different story. That's a different story. Yeah. So Donnie Brasco was the guy who was, he was an agent and he pretended to be a mob guy. And he got in with the mob and was with him for like seven years. Did all kinds of shit with the mob. And then sold everybody out and they all went under.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm just so. The culture, everything is, they used to be afraid snitch and stitches. Now, I don't know if this is just everywhere, but everywhere I go. It's like the most interesting thing now. that's selling on any platform, especially social media, is beef. And I don't understand why people gravitate toward negativity more than anything. That's normal.

Why? But you know what? It's interesting. Your platform is not known for that. No. Your platform, but I go to these other platforms and I don't know. I think these guys, people, they just sit back and it's like, okay, what can I say to make people upset, get them riled up, and then I take advantage of the engagement that they do.

They're in a different game than me. All right. Their game is trying to get engagement. My game is talking to people that are interesting. But doesn't that become, I don't want to be triggered anything, but doesn't that become destructive after a while? 100%. And do you, have you noticed, especially, I'll put it like this,

especially with comedians with podcasts. It used to be a time where, like you say, a person would go on a podcast because it was, interesting. They told funny stories or they was good at their craft or whatever. But now it feels like all these platforms, and I don't know that's just in my community, when I say that, black

people, it's like the only way I can find myself interesting if I talk shit about people. And motherfuckers are going away from being funny when you get interviewed. Like every fucking podcast

I turn on now is somebody I'm exposed this person. I'm tell this about what you didn't know. And the one thing they're not doing, especially as a stand-up comedian, motherfuckers don't give a fuck about being funny no more. Are those days over? No, no, no, no. Those people that do that are almost always not very talented.

Almost always. The only exception to that, the only exception to that is Cat. And I think what Cat was doing was different, because what Cat was doing was exposing what he thought was snakes and liars. Okay. It's a different thing. Okay, okay. I'm okay.

Okay. Okay. This is my question. Okay. This is my question. People can take it. Okay. Okay.

I want to say this. This is what I'm saying, Joe. What are you saying? I'm coming from this place. I'm like this. No disrespect to whatever to can, but like, who asked you? Shannon Sharp did when he did that podcast. Shannon Sharp might have asked one question.

But Shannon Sharp likes that. Like that in his podcast, he likes a lot of that. His people, they find questions. He's got a sheet of paper. He's got questions and people they have beef. Joe, what do you do with those truths? What do you do with talking about? I watched, this is a horrible impression.

I sat there in the pocket lot and I watched people go up at the Denny's house and they came down and they were standing up. I'm trying to figure out what the fuck do you get out of that? what is the result of that? You expose these people to say what? Hollywood is never going to fucking change. You know what changes? Like what you do? I left fucking Hollywood.

Hollywood is not going to change. And I'm not saying I went to a ditty party. First off, I was never invited. There's a chance I would accept the invitation with rules. Right. But what is the purpose of exposing something that you... I don't think most people... are exposing. What most people are doing with they're being negative is they are jealous and they are below the person to talk of shit about. Like whenever I see someone that's talking shit about a high level. You don't think that you say that and you use Cat Williams as an example. So when you said they're jealous. First of all, when Kat did it, it was very funny, which is different.

Kat's a very funny guy. And when he was doing it, I think he was also being very funny while he was doing it, which is different. Well, you have to put an LOL on the end of it because. People might not understand this humor. Because this is the connection people have. This is what they, the connection they have with cat, this is what they say. And they ride with him. They say, where is the lie? Where is the lie and all this stuff?

But I'm just trying to understand what is the purpose of exposing all this stuff? What do we do with this information? What do we do with the information that Diddy like to have fucking freak parties with baby all this? What the fuck do we do with all this information? Well, Diddy's in jail right now? So they did that with the information. Well, Denny's in jail for Derry. doing something that a lot of people

I let me tell you something Joe tell me something I was writing with Diddy for once I liked the music he did or anything I don't know Deity like that but when I first read the definition of sex trafficking

right I'm sure you're a first person you're smart uh huh the definition of sex trafficking to transport a woman across state lines with the intent to sexual intercourse were her. Right. When you're paying them. It's trafficking is...

No, there's not actually... Really? This is my... Jamie, you can pull us up. Wait a minute. So if you are dating a girl and she lives in Minnesota and you live in California and you flyer to California, that's sex trafficking? And I'm thinking about... I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true at all.

I think that's just flying a girl in that you're having a relationship. In the streets, they call it flued out. Flude out. Yeah, but that's normal. Everybody does that. But that's the definition. Commercial sex act. Yeah, commercial.

Commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion. Well, coercion's crazy. Because coercion is like, please, I'll buy your bag. That's sex trafficking. That's a thing. So, like, if a girl, she's like, what are you going to do for me? Like, you know those shoes you want? I got those shoes for you.

Let's go shopping. Like, that's kind of sex trafficking if that's coercion for money. Like, if a girl's thinking about coming out, to visit you and then you go listen listen listen what are you looking for what do you what do you want to buy i got money come on let's go shopping that kind of would fall into that category but we're getting off topic let's go back to the topic originally in hand the reason why these comedians are negative no no no no you're not going to get in trouble for sex trafficking listen that's all horseshit but the reason why these comedians are doing it is because they're never bigger than the comedians

they're shitting on never one thousand 1,000 percent. And you know what it is, Joe? And they're never good. You know what it is, too, Joe? Is that deep down inside, they want to be that person. 100%. Or they want to be in the position that person's in as a better way of putting it. I'll use this.

I'll tell you this story. I realize that, not to say names, but it's so many people that could be guilty of it. And this is the thing that I hear that understands me, that disturbs me, is that, you know, A lot of these people that bitched the most, they, at some point in their career, they were favored by Hollywood. Yes. At some point in their career, they had these opportunities. At some point in their career, guess what? They had the agencies.

They had the agents. And something happened in their career where they fell out of favor for whatever you want to call out of it. Whatever you want to call at, for whatever, maybe something they did. Agency didn't like it too much. And now everything that they wrote on, everything they wanted to do, now, now. It's all that's fucked up and the only way you get this opportunity because it had to be sexual favors and all that type of shit And where do the fuck you draw the line? But it's not even sexual favors.

It's like they criticize the work of the other person. That person ate shit. That person sucks. Can I get it? Yo, there's here's the thing. There was. Come on. You get this all the time because you ride with Dave and Dave's number one, right?

So you always get this label, even though you're a great comic, you get this label being a coach. Tail Rider. Right. And guess what? Everybody don't... This is what I try to explain to people, Joe. Everybody does not have to be Batman. I don't have a problem with being

Robin. You know why? Because Robin got the same amount of screen time as Batman. And the reason why I say, this is what I get. And I'm telling you this, Joe. I don't know if this gum is kicking him. This is what fucks me up, Joe. This is what

fucks me up. And I'll tell you example. I'm going to give you example. Don't give me examples. No, I'm going to tell you. Are you pulling out your phone? I'm going to tell you why. Because your fucking shirt is fucking triggering me right now. Kill Tony? No, I want to. You mean the greatest, greatest comedy show of all time in the history of the known universe?

I know that, but there's a lot of lies involved. Okay. Listen, this is what they say. This is what they say. Don't pay attention to what they say. Why are you doing that? Yo, you told me. What are you playing?

What are you playing? Um, Chappelle's butt plug is acting up again. Oh, God. Yo, I got to deal with this shit. What is so hard? No. Well, you got to stop paying attention to it. It's so hard.

Do you know what happened to me if I paid attention to all the haters that I have? Yeah. I would go crazy. Do you think that you paid attention to those haters? Now, you're in a position right now. You have so many reasons to say, fuck them. Do you feel like you had that same belief when you was first starting this? Did you engage them then?

Well, I engaged online with a lot of people in the early days because I didn't understand what you're doing is you're engaging with people that don't have happy lives. Right. And they're negative. And there's some criticisms that are good for you because some criticisms make you evaluate what you're doing and say, okay, well, what I need to do is be undeniable. So these critics mean nothing to me because you can't, I'm killing. The audience loves me. I'm selling out everywhere. I'm doing great on stage.

You can't pay attention You know what? I will say this I hear you Joe I tried that with the motherfuckers on your shirt You had a bad show You had one bad show I never had a bad show You had a bad show

Please don't do this to me You did you had that one bad show I did not fucking have a bitch Did you walk off the show? Just it man Get sit the fuck down I did not fucking walk off the show You want me to play it back

I Please don't do this You were a little drunk. Who is the comic? Who is the comic? I don't know his band. He's funny. Whoever that dude is, he's funny.

He's funny. You know what you're doing this? You know what you're doing? You're being a provocatory. You're provoking me because we broke this shit down. And I don't want to keep going to this. I didn't think of this when I was wearing this shirt. I'll change the shirt.

No, it's okay. Put something over. I'll wear a Benny the Jet shirt. Let's break it down, Joe. Oh, we don't have to. We have to. You started this shit. All right, thank you.

I'm going to change my shirt right now. It's like I didn't have a bad show. You definitely didn't have a great show, right? When you walk off, it's not good. I feel like Carrie. They're all going to laugh at me. They're going to laugh at me. It wasn't this for the last fucking time, Joe.

For the last fucking time. and this is what's so fucking evil about this situation there's some people call a bad show. I never wanted to do the show. But you came back on, you had a good show, right? I want to go back, let's rewind. All right?

And this is, you were a part of it. Hey, look, I changed my shirt. Thank you. I appreciate that. Shout out to Benny the Jet. Okay, I feel a lot better now. Oh, boy, I need another piece of gum. I'm going to say this.

Say what it's worth. First off, I did not want the first time I did it here in Austin. I didn't want to do the show. Okay. And the reason why I didn't want to do the show, now you're not even paying attention to me. You want a cigar?

Yeah, I'll take a cigar. I didn't want to do the show, and I'll tell you why, because the streets say I'm sensitive. You are a little sensitive. Can I not have your opinion and just listen to me, please? They know I'm sensitive. It was during the pandemic, Joe, you remember, people would still come to do your podcast because they know the benefits of it and you had your thing doing. They would come to your podcast and then they would fucking leave because they didn't want to catch COVID and then they would leave Tony stranded and he had no good guess.

I was here, right? This one, when I'm talking about the time when Tony had a black band. He still has a black man All black There's a couple black people On there now I think it's mostly black Right?

Okay I want to tell a story This is the last time I'm going to talk about Deep Madness I mean This is the last time Joe I want to tell the truth

Drummer and the guitar player Or not What's that? Mike? Yeah I mean there's like The horns A lot of them are black Definitely

Doesn't matter This episode is brought to you By Black Rifle Coffee The only coffee We drink here In the studio And I drink at home You know

it's real? Companies that stand for something from day one, not because it's trendy or because it calendar flipped. Black Rifle Coffee is one of those companies. America is turning 250 and Black Rifle Coffee Company is headed into 2026, making

great coffee for people who get up early, work hard, and still care about this country. Roasts like Tactus Squatch, wake in the neighbors and Spirit of 76 are strong, straightforward, and not trying to be clever. Also, they have like really cool art on the bags that I love. And if you want something quick in the morning, they have

cold brew cans in just black and vanilla, clean, strong, and easy to grab on the way out the door. If you like energy drinks, check out GrapeX, their new grape-flavored energy drink, zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine, and no nonsense. This isn't about hype. It's just a solid American company making good products and backing the people who serve. Go to black riflecoffee.com slash Rogan and use the code Rogan for 30% off. You also find it at Walmart, Target, Kroger, or your local Black Rifle Coffee Shop. Veteran founded, American roasted,

Black Rifle Coffee is America's Coffee. Look at the old, when it was all, a high production and all that type of shit. Tony is like, it's hard for me to get a guest. Would you stay? And this is when you fucked me up the last time, you wasn't playing fair. Yes, you did.

I wasn't playing fair? No, I'm telling you when you weren't playing fair. When was I not playing fair? Can I talk? Please. All I want to do it, I don't know if I got it raised in my head. I just want to be able to speak. It is my month.

It's my fucking month. So, Tony said, would you stay? Come on. I was like, you know. And I stayed, right? Okay. And I stayed, and I stayed. I was on the show for two and a half hours.

I told him, this is where it gets all crazy. I told him I had something I was supposed to do later. There was another black comic that was on his show. He started roasting me. I had no problem with that. I had no problem with him. roast me, but I felt fucked up because it was only me, him, and I was

trying to get this guy some sound advice, but the only way he thought he was going to get off by fuck with me. So I was like, yo, why you fuck with me? We're on the same, we're on the fucking same team. What they did was, look at the fucking video. You see, I want you to slow it down.

Slow it down. Slow it down. Slow it video down. It's like a Zepruder film. Back to the left. You're going to let me get my thought, Joe. Sorry. It's so easy for me get distracted. Just hanging out with me. One of these gum?

So if you look at this video, you see him saying something to me, and then when I leave, it's two different fucking comics on the fucking stage. It's a dude that I was roasting, and then they showed me to exit.

And then these killed Tony, bitch-ass motherfuckers, and I'm telling you, I'll get past it. They made, oh, Donnell walked up. I didn't walk off. I had some other shit to do. And then our last episode, you and your boy, Tony, he caught here and Tony doubled down on it. And he said, no, that's not what happened.

Of course, them comment motherfuckers, the ones that be putting cringe on it, they rode with it. Okay. Then I came back. Came back at an amazing show. Tony said it was one of the best shows he's ever done. You know why? It was amazing. Because you were ready.

I'm amazing. You are amazing, but also you wanted to get it back. Right? I didn't have, you know what? This is what Red Man said to me. Red band, Red Man. Whatever the fuck is name. He changed, too.

I'm going to tell you about it. Why is in the Wu-Tang class? Let me tell you. I'm going to tell you the difference between him, and I'm going to tell you the similarities between him and Jamie a little later on, right? Okay. How they're divas now. And I know you say it's different.

Jamie? Yes. He has a false memory of something already. Yes. Jamie is the last thing from a fucking diva. I will defend Jamie to the bitter end. Well, maybe you don't know him. I don't know Jamie?

Yo, let me tell you, this is Jamie. I know Jamie better than his mom. I know, but this is a Jamie I saw. Sit down. You're not on camera. It was also Saturday night. Okay, he had a leather jacket on. Jamie had a leather jacket. He didn't call it a leather jacket.

Whatever it was. You own a leather jacket? No, he doesn't even know. Wait, wait, wait, the collar was slipped up. Joe, the collar was flipped up. Like dice. And then he had the shirt. You might have had Timmy no brakes.

If it's confusing. Joe, he had the shirt open to this button right here. Oh, right. Gold chains? And he was sitting in, I don't know what type of moose.

James, you had a gold chains, boost on his hair? Ponytail was popping. He had some type of moose or something, right? And then he was just looking. And I was like, what's up, Jamie?

He was like, he had his hands in the pot. It was given, as they say, it was given Fonzie attitude. I knew that had changed. But this is what red band, Red man, whatever man he was. Red band.

Red man, he said, after the show he said that might have been the most epic comeback and killed Tony history I was like well the second episode was you came back full you know what you're doing I don't know it was great I'm trying to use the term

I don't think this is passive wrestle but you fuck with my mental right now I'm telling you you're a great comic and you're funny as fuck and when you came back was amazing the second episode was great this is the point I'm making it what you're doing right the first episode was great it was Dr. Tug

It was doctor videos, Dr. Videos. But then here's the thing. They said, Red Man, Red Band, he said, he said, that was the greatest comeback. I was like, it wasn't a comeback. You're editing what it was.

And this is what I did. You're editing. This is what I did. And I'm not saying I think about the kill Tony audience like that, but I thought about them. This is what I said. I was like, this is what I went,

like you said, I know what I do. I say, you know what? I don't want to give these motherfuckers opportunity to be able to fuck with me. So I did, before I went to last, I said, okay, what did you do last time that you're going to do difference for they want to say that? I was like, the last one, you had some drinks. Well, I wasn't able to do anything about that because I had some more drinks. But I was like, I tried to address what their concerns were, right?

Which, with them, it's not going to make a difference because I know that last episode. This is what I didn't understand about Kill Tony. I didn't understand the formula. I don't watch it like that. First time I ever did it, I was interrupting the one-minute part. You know what I mean? Oh, okay.

And Tony told me, the first time I did it, he said, D, only one rule. He said, let them talk for a minute. I said, Tony, why you have this on me on this show? You know I'm going to break the rules. He knew that, right? But then after I was like, I understood how important was to let those comics get that minute.

Right. So when I did it the second time with Rob Schneider, I didn't interrupt. Sometimes my criticism could have been too hard. I was trying to be more supportive than anything. If you watched the last one, I did, I had nothing bad to say about people in a harsh way. Certain people I knew was updated just because it was gimmick.

And there were certain people I was like, oh, man, they've really got talent. Like this one lady, who's an older woman, I think she's a regular there, right? I don't know what she was. But I told her, I'll say, you know, it's so awesome. I said, when I watch you perform, I see passion. I see somebody that's going into a different career later in life, which is the hardest thing to do. I made those points.

And I wasn't trying to be ass, and I got caught up in one, and they ran with this shit. And it's a song that was one of the acts by the name of Juanita. Juanita is a gender. What is it when you... Transgender? Yeah, you have a dick, but you're a girl still? Yeah. Yeah, transgender, right?

So she came up with this song, and she did the song, We will praise you, praise you. And I had a couple drinks, right? and I said, and I was speaking like, shit, you don't have that headphones on. What, what, Jamie? I just started playing it, sorry. What, just start? Oh, you geared up for that shit, huh?

Put your headphones on. No, listen. Put your headphones on. Oh, God, okay. Oh, ho. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Wait a minute. That's Juanita's version? That's the rich. Okay. Okay. Do you got Juanita's version? Oh, I can find. So this is what happened, Joe.

So I had a couple. I'm two, two, three, four, five Tito's in. And I'm only looking at the artist with my peripheral. I'm not staring nobody down and like looking at a minute through the pupils or whatever. So the performer, I'm going to say that because I don't want to get anybody upset. The performer was like... Here we go. Okay.

Now look how I'm not paying attention. Right. You're looking right at her. Shut the fuck out. Okay, let's... All right, we'll see. It was very strange when in 2000,000... I'm just gonna, sorry.

Okay. Oh, they had to cut it out too, I think. Probably the song. Yeah. That's the gayest thing I've ever done. And I do anal. I believe it or not. Juanita!

Hey! Welcome back to the show. Can I do a remix of that song for any black guy watching her right now? I don't know. We... It's probably true. true until you find out she has a dick, Donnell

that is a good. Keep it going. Keep it going. This is amazing. That's how it happens, ladies and gentlemen. They can't tell. Keep it going, keep it going because it's hilarious.

Whereas Charlemagne's going to find that clip. Fuck you. You are you are fucked Donnell. I'm getting word. the street. I'm getting word for the streets. I'm sure this happened.

I don't want to get bad like Dave's appell. I'm sure this happened before in Korea. I'm sure in Korea as an 18-year-old boy, this is a memory coming back to you. Oh, my God. That's usually how black guys react. It's pretty. Juanita, have you been with a black man before? Keep we going.

Keep we go. I get to get you a fire. Okay. Are you just saying that so that he doesn't find you and kill you? No, it's race, right. I'm just kidding. Oh shit. Now I'm offended. No, I've been with one. He was half. Okay. He was half. Half of black. Okay.

Come on, that was funny. No, wait a minute. It was funny. And I didn't take, the funny thing about it was, I had, I did have a couple of drinks, right? People like, how did you not know? I live in the Midwest and what I really thought I know women that look just like Juanita. Sure. That in the face it's kind of like sketchy like a dollar general one to two

and I wasn't offended but it just caught me off guard. But going back to what I was saying about the Kill Tony thing and this is another thing people said well Donnell you got upset because Rob Schneider was roasting or whatever. First off, there was the first time

Rob Schneider was on the show, right? He didn't really know too much about the Kill Tony platform. I knew a little more than he did. And at the beginning, he was kind of cold, if you want to say. Not cold, like, not funny, but he just wasn't warmed up to the flow. And then I started saying things. I was Allie Upping him, right? Right.

Basically, people could say what they want. I helped get him comfortable on the show, and then he started crushing, right? He started crushing. And then we did, anybody tell you, that episode was amazing, right? It was amazing. But this is the thing, this is what, that platform is not a place for you to tell how you really feel about somebody, right? And I owe Tony an apology, and I'll tell you why. When Tony did the R.I.N. Republican National Convention, whatever, remember when he did the roasting?

Yes. For that, it was a very, very testy time. Right. Politics. Everybody should do this and everything. I told them not to do it. You told them not to do the show? You not to do that? The Republican Party thing.

Here's the thing. Just for the people that's listening, this is what happened at the end of that killed Tony with me and Rob Schneider. All I wanted to do, I had the question on, where do you draw the line? Do you draw the line of what people think, how you're supposed to respond something, or do you loyal, are you loyal to somebody on how they treat you and how they are as a friend to you? And Tony wanted me to do that show. And anytime I've called Tony, he's pick up the phone, vice versa. We've been in for each other. My publicist, I don't know if this is a good idea. right now too because what you think is a nice gesture you want to do the show people are going to act like as a political stand i didn't want that right so i can't listen to publicists this is what i learned now joe what i'm saying that was my inexperienced whatever and something i kept calling and i was like what if i do this because i wanted to be reconnected with him whatever and i told tony he was hot in a good way and a positive way I felt so bad got caught him, I said, man, I really want to do the show, but I think people are going to take it the wrong way now, right? And this was with me, I felt bad about it. I stood up at your condo.

I was on the balcony, bro, and I watched the motherfuckers going to the show. I felt bad about it. I didn't do it. And the only thing I wanted to do at the end of that Kiltony episode was to apologize to him and say, you know, as a friend, I probably wasn't there. And he understood, even though he's never going to have me do the show again. he said, I'd love to have you there. The only issue I had with Rob Schneider,

in that moment, he didn't have the sense of me trying to say something serious, right? And he was getting a laugh off of this one joke, and it was at my expense. You know, when I had this moment, I was talking about friendship and everything. Rob kept on with this fucking corny joke, and I didn't want to flip out.

And then people took that as like, oh yeah, Rob roared to him, the fuck out of here. I was trying to talk about, and I had this issue, you might have the same issue. issue. Some people know people, a certain way you know them different way.

And I use an example, and I'm going to get shitting on for saying this or whatever. Like, oh, how could you say that? I um... You gotta stop worrying about what other people think. Can't do it. I can't do it. You gotta stop worrying about what other people think. This is the

conflict. You know how you feel. Just be yourself. I'll just say this. Kid rock, right? You say that name for some people in certain places, they can't. Oh, fuck. or whatever, right? I met Keir Rock some years ago when we were doing the Cornfield shows

in Yellow Springs, and I tell people, and we talked about this earlier, some people are provocateurs. I really believe Kerouc doesn't believe half the shit he's say, but I think that he knows it's going to move to Dowell as well as going to make him be in the headlines and what people are like, oh shit, he's going to stick to them.

Well, we did that show in Nashville. Remember we hung out with him? We went to his house? Yeah, exactly. And with that, even when he came to Cornfield that time, This was the point when he said some crazy shit out of his mouth. Nobody wanted to be around him or anything, right? They was like, oh, blah, blah, blah, right? You know, when I do this thing called I do River Runs in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

And for some reason, I take people down the river, and it's like a peace thing. Like, you're in nature. Got a photo. You're right outside the door. I know I asked with that photo here, too. It's right outside the door. I love that. So now, if you look at that photo, you'll see the energy.

That's the vibe I was on. And nobody wanted to get close to kid, rock, or anything, right? And I remember as a kid how the black community accepted him. He's cool. I'm thinking about that shit. We're riding down the river. Kids are over on one kayak. I'm on the other side.

We smoked a joint. And he looked at me. And I know he was sincere. And he said, he said, man, it felt like I just had 13 hours of anger management. Right. And I was like, okay, I'm not trying to be a therapist or anything, but that felt good. Then at the end, we stopped. He's flipping burgers and shit.

We got to know each other. We kept in touch with each other. And he was doing a comedy festival. in Nashville, right? He appreciated me as a comedian. He said, yo, Dee, I'm doing this. I was like one of the first people he called, right? He said, you want to do it? I was like, why not? Then I thought about it was like,

again, what you said? I was like, what people are going to think? Seven comedians on the show, I'm the only black guy. I knew what I was walking into. I knew it was going to be all maggas. It wasn't going to be a gay person. It wasn't going to be a midget. It wasn't going to be a lesbian. It wasn't going to be anything but

bona fide the real real red white and blue flag motherfuckers but I said Donnell

can you separate can you go up here can you perform and be entertaining not shucking and jive

or none of that type of shit I went up there last person got a standing ovation right at the end of the show

this is what people might not understand and I'm not trying to defend them or anything at the end of the show me and

kid rock in this case I want to say kid rock wasn't backstage Bobby was right? And he said, man, he looked at me.

He said, man, I think we just brought this country back together, right? And I said, well, don't separate it, motherfucker. He said, okay, two weeks later, he'd do some other stupid shit. When Trump got elected, I know people went to his page to see what his response was going to be. Was he going to gloat? We were like, fuck y'all, this is America. He did this video, which I thought was so dope. Because it showed two sides of him.

It showed Kid Rock and it showed Bobby, right? And then how they both responded to Donald Trump being elected. The Kid Rock was the crotch grabbing motherfucker. Fuck you, right? Then he came out, you find this, he came out as Bobby with shorts, just no American flags, baseball cap, fucking ream glasses or whatever. And I thought it was dope. The dialogue that he had with it, he played the victory.

He said, you know, we did win. said, but this is not a time to gloat. It's so much stuff that we need to do. He said, all sides want to get to a certain place, but we have different ideas on how we're going to get there. I thought that for whatever people want to think, I thought

that was showing another side. And also I told him, because I would talk to him off and on, I said, you know what song you should do? You should do Nina Simone's song, misunderstood. Right? Just sing that shit. But I know he wouldn't never do that because the base that really

likes a response to my blood, or he's soft now. The point I'm making, even though with Tony, with the situation, I consider Tony a good friend of mine for different reasons, right? That's why I wanted to have that moment to say that, but Rob Schneider, as much as they say I took away from moments on that show, he took away

for that moment. I wasn't trying to be a bitch. I wasn't trying to be soft, but I wanted to say, I apologize because sometimes friendships got to be stronger than that, and that's where I was with that. And as much as, I don't need the Kill Tony show and this is what I always say about that show I said there's not that reminds me Kill Tony reminds me of the Def Jam era

right and when I say that there was a platform for undiscovered talent people that you've never seen for it's such a spectacle like Def Jam it was people that didn't have this skill set to fucking go headlight but they was being seen

same thing with Kill Tony Is your phone on? Is your phone ding? Sorry, shut off This is what I'm sorry. This is what I appreciated about that show for whoever likes it or whatever. It's a platform to get on. I travel around the country. It used to be, you remember

back of the day it was like, oh, I need to be on letterman. I need to be on the carceton or whatever. That is the, I got to get on Killed Tone. 100%. And in some cases, it's some good and bad to that. Some people that was ready for it. Some people like, you know what? You had two or three minutes worth of jokes. You know what I'm saying? You're not

ready. But it gave people some hope. When I was staying at the hotel the other day, three people traveled, across the country with the hopes of that. So I know how important that show is. You know, is it the fan base? I want them to be like, oh, I can't wait to see them. But for me, I always, my whole career,

I always want to be around the people, the places that they say the best comedians perform. When I started, when I was in New York, I wanted to get past at the comedy seller, not because I wanted to be a seller-dweller. I didn't want to be the guy in the back, fucking just every weekend, just sit back there and tell them what stories. I was like

if this is where the best comics perform, I want to be a part of that. I want to be past that. Because when I got passed in the comedy cellar. It wasn't a lot of black community was working in the cellar. It was Greer Barnes. It was Keith Robinson. R.I.P. It was William Stevenson.

Patrice. Dave Chappelle. In fact, Barry Katz had a room, Boston Comedy Club. And it was Black Night on Sundays, right? The black community should look to me like they say, where you going? I was like, I got a spot of the cell. Like, how do you get in the cellar?

The way I got into it was put the work in, I hung out, got a couple of recommendations, and when it's time for me to showcase, I did my thing. But the minute I got past in the cellar, I didn't really care about working there all the time. I just wanted to be validated as like, this is the spot.

I get it. You know, same thing with the comedy store. Same thing with what you're doing here. It was that part of it. I get it. Grant Barnes probably one of the most underappreciated talents in the country. But you know what?

I've known that dude for 30 years. He's a funny motherfucker and he's been funny forever. You know, it's so funny that you said underappreciated because, you know, you know comedians that put the work in and whatever. It's a phrase that people use underrated, but then you've got to ask who rated. You didn't use those words. You said underappreciated. But he is.

I don't know. Sometimes you've got to ask yourself. He's not underrated by comics. He's underappreciated by audience members for whatever reason. I think it's a social media thing. I just think he doesn't have a big presence on social media for whatever reason. He's a solid. Solid fucking comic, though.

Always has been. And a solid guy. And a good dude. But that's another thing. This is the area that we're in right now. And you notice it's even more so now the most talented people aren't getting the shots if you don't know how to evolve. Well, it's not even just that because like look at Dave Chappelle, not Dave Chappelle, excuse me, David Tell. Dave Atel, I think is one of the funniest dudes who's ever lived.

Ever, ever. One of the best comics ever in the history of comedy. and mostly does clubs and does like theaters and stuff like that he should be sold out arenas all across the country but he does not promote himself he's not into social media but I don't even think

a tale is different than specials I don't think I think a tale would be petrified not that he couldn't do it and it was probably remember with the show he had what was that the late night show that was before anybody was doing it yeah the late night show he'd go to bars

and stuff like that uh-huh insomniac yeah insomniac this is before everybody was doing I don't think that something people, they like, I think he's always going to make millions of dollars, touring or whatever, but I think his comfort zone is like he's a, not a club act, but he's a club comment.

I think the best thing for him he ever wants to be is in front of 250 to 500 people. Well, he's awesome on that, but he does, like, when Bert does arenas, he does arenas, and he murders in arenas. I think the real thing with him is that he's just focused on his craft only. And the props that he gets from other comedians on podcasts and things along those lines is what really fuels his popularity. And then when people go to see him, just word of mouth. Do you think some people might be afraid of a certain level of fame that they don't want

to have? There is that. But I don't think he's that. I just don't think he thinks about it. I mean, he doesn't even have a phone. Like, he carries a flip phone with him all the time. He has an iPhone that he, like, stores away and sometimes he uses it. But when you text him, he texts you on a like, do, do, do, do, do you got to press four times to get an S.

Joe, you know what it is, right? Well, he doesn't want to be distracted. He's in the Epstein files. Yo, you got to have a... You need a burn of phone. If you heavily in the Epstein files... No, I think... He's only in the Epstein files

because he was on a lineup that Epstein was going to go see at the cellar. I think Dave Othell... Louis-J. Gomez is on that, too. I like it. I think David Tell is like... I think Dave Tell's ultimate happiness is being on stage.

Shut your fucking phone off, man. Put that shit on silent. Just put it on silent. Do you know how to do that? You don't know how to do that. Don't disrespect me like that. Put it on, do not disturb. You know how to do that?

It's okay. It's off. It's off. Okay. Keeps danging, you popular motherfuck. I think some people, I think my opinion, David Till, his comfort zone is fucking just being as incognito as he tries to be. It's just like, oh, I came over this. I don't know anybody that turns over material. There's certain comments you look at Joe and you like, God damn, this motherfucker is constantly trying.

Yeah. Like, when I work with Dave, he forced me to do that. Dionne Cole is another guy. When I watch Dionne Cole does, like, at the Hollywood Improv, I think maybe three times a week, he just has a Monday night and he just uses as a workout, right? Me, when I go into a spot, I'm trying to beat the fuck. I'm trying to beat it up.

So sometimes I get distracted on what I'm really there for that's a workout new material. There's a such, there's a different level where you just like, you know what, I could deal with the silence. I could deal with something that working. And when I watch people like him, It's another comedian in LA by the name Malik S

that doesn't have all that notoriety like that But when I see him I'm like damn Every time I see this motherfucker He's working on some new shit and has the same passion Everybody doesn't have that That's why David Till will always give Other comics something to like Try to achieve because he's like

You ain't going to see him doing the same shit It's always a flip And that's what makes him who he is And that's why he gets so respected by something Well, he's only focused on his craft, whereas some people are really focused on social media and promotions, and they have a guy that films him doing a bunch of wild things and edits with music. I've never seen so many comedians have full-out production crews with them. Right. On an intro.

I know. On stage. They think that that's what they need. You know, they think that's what they need to separate them. And it does get them attention. But what it takes away. It does draw some focus away from what you're trying to do, which is work on your shit and come up with new stuff,

where a towel doesn't have any of that. But with that said, it takes away, but then it also lets you know who the special people are. Right now, my goddamn guy that serves this small pool and should say he's got a special coming out. I don't know who doesn't have a special coming out. And the thing about it is like, now Joe, you know it. Specials aren't, if you really look at it, specials aren't specials anymore.

It's a weird word, right? Specials are a weird word. It's special. I got a new special. Like no other art form calls it a special. Like if someone, like Taylor Swift puts out a concert video,

it's a video for performance. You know, a musician puts out a video, it's that. It's like for a comic, we got a weird word special. You know what special is now? When you get excited about special, if people still do that, it's who's putting it out?

It's special people that do it. It's special people to like, Sebastian. He's doing it special. You know what I'm saying? Fucking Tom does a special. It's special people where you know it's special. And a lot of them now,

it's just people that's doing 45 minutes worth of comedy. No beginning, no middle, no end, no point of view. You don't know anything about them. It's just like the same way they do photo dumps. It's just like joke dumps. Right. But I just say, and I'm not, people say Dave Chappelle's a butt player.

But one thing I could say, however you look at it. Dave Chappelle's a what? No, I'm Dave Chappelle's butt plug. I'm going back to, that's what people, you know. You got to stop listening to what other people say. Joe, I'm second weighing into a story. Is it about Jamie wearing a Fonzie jacket? Hey!

He's got him in all colors. He's got him in all colors. He's got a red, white, and blue one. You know, and like people... He took it off before the show. People get so critical, but at a certain point, people evolve. People that you know him a certain way, But then you're talking about a person who's a 35, 40-year career, like people like, well, this last special, so-and-so did.

It wasn't that funny. But how often, how long are you going to just be like rip-wrowing funny? Some people have a position where when they talk, people listen. And I look at, I use Dave as an example. If you look at All Is Special, 20 years from now, right, you have a Netflix and Chill Day or whatever. If you play All Is Special that Dave ever did, you would know exactly. what was going on in the world at that time. You know what I mean?

Right. You know what's going. Some people put out singles. They got one or two jokes and some people put out, put out albums. He's one of those people. Sebastian is another one and you look at like, you see how his comedy is involved. People get older. They have different perspective on life and that's what you have to fucking accept them for.

But we don't do that. Right. And another thing, I don't know if this is prevalent in your community. And when I say that, you community is a lot of people, but my community, man, it's just so much dumb beef. And I've, it's only one white beef I've ever known about, and that's yours. Mine? Yes. What do you mean?

The beef that you had would have, I don't even mean. With Benzania? Yeah, years ago. Oh. Well, that was the same thing like with Kat. Like, some shit just has to be exposed. That was a real problem. You weren't around the store back then, but it was a real problem where he had that special or that show brother on Comedy Central after Dave left, which he was basically doing his version of Dave's sketches.

And he was Steve. Do you think it was his version of Dave's sketches? There was a lot of shit was. Like when he dressed like the white guy and had white paint on his face and wear the white wig, it was basically the same character that Dave was doing. Yeah, but if you look at the history of sketch comedy, I don't think Dave was the first person to ever paint and dressed himself up to look like. Yeah. Yeah, but it was right afterwards, right after the same slot. Anything that came after the Chappelle's show, they would have compared it to.

Dave was saying it. Yeah. Dave never talked shit about nobody. He was like, this motherfucker's doing my show. Dave was saying it. Dave doesn't talk shit about nobody. Right. It was, but that was only one of the problems.

The real problem was he would sit in the back room and watch open mic nights and take their shit. Like, they would flash the light when he was in the room so comics wouldn't do material. They would start doing crowd work. So why didn't he get exposed before that? Why did it just come? Because nobody had the balls to do it. And then he had to pass on. Because he was famous at the time.

And he was doing, and look, it cost me. I got banned from the store. I lost my agent. And I was famous. I was on Fear Factor. I was rich. I had a lot going for me where I could stick my neck out. But you came back strongly.

I'd get another example, like the same situation with Dave and Comedy Central. as much as he went through that. He took a 12-year hiatus or whatever you want to say. What Dave showed in that is that he's a real artist. Dave just said, fuck it, I'm going to disappear for a while, like a legend. He just disappeared. I remember when I was hearing stories about Dave doing shows where he would set up a speaker in Seattle in the park and just start doing stand-up.

And people are like, what the fuck? And for no money, people would just show up and he would just do street performances. But you know what was kind of where he got it from? You've heard of a comment. I'm pretty sure. Charlie Barnett? A hundred percent. Yeah, we played Charlie Barnett on the show.

I knew Charlie. Charlie was like, if you ever thought you were funny or whatever, go, this is what the art of only people I've ever known and got certain level of success with that, Charlie Barnett, Michael Collier, when he used to live in his beach. Right. But people don't understand how Charlie Barnett would like, to go to a park, go to the center of Washington Square Park. And you got to gather around a bunch of people in a circle.

It's a certain technique. Not only that, you got to hold that. their attention for one joke. Right. You got to get them involved, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And you build this audience up,

and then it's really for one joke. A lot of people don't know that Charlie got Saturday Night Live, but he couldn't read. Yeah, he couldn't, and that's what Gaye opened up the door. But he was so gangster. Like, when they wouldn't give him spots,

because, you know, he was probably a bit to deal with. He would go to the Boston Comic Cup and yell in there. Don't go in there! I'm doing my show in five minutes! The whole fucking club. club would come out.

That's how much power he had. But then sometimes that we become victims of our own vices and everything and destroy us more than anything. That's why when people talk shit about like Kevin, Kevin Hart didn't get out the mud, you got funny

but you know funny isn't everything. Okay, you're funny, that's oh, so good that you got talent but more importantly, it's your work ethics and how do you take your guy given talent and your passion and turn it into money. You know

you're into music and everything. You probably could name a million saxophonists or whatever that didn't get to do that you could be like, well, listen to this shit. But for some reason, they didn't have the business part and all that together. And I'm going back, I'm probably talking to circles now, but this is what upsets me the most about my folks or whatever. These people that go on these platforms

and talk shit about people. There was a comedian that was talking shit about Martin Lawrence, right? Well, I saw Martin Lawrence, and Martin Lawrence in the casino, he's really it's not that funny. I'm like this, motherfucker, he's Martin Lawrence.

Well, they didn't know him in the 90s. I used to have to follow Martin Lawrence at the comedy store. Particularly, no, if you just know Martin Lawrence, period, that's enough. Richard Pryor, before he passed away, when he was in the wheelchair, damn near rolled him out of the

stage, sold out audiences. I followed him. for six weeks. I followed him for six weeks at the comedy store when he was like that. Certain people, Joe, I look at this business, are made people. How dare you talk shit about this motherfucker? That's a good way to put it. He's a made man. Another thing, Joe. A legend. You know, in this business,

you can have a career, right? But you have certain times where you just ruled. You had three years. Martin Lawrence film star, movie star, comedy star. He had one period of time for five or seven years when it was just Martin everywhere. How dare you? As a person gets older. And whether he has a good

bad night or a bad night, how are you to judge, and you ain't doing shit? How are you to judge a motherfucker that when I was coming up, Joe, every fucking black comic in the business wanted an audition. Everybody wanted to be hustle man. Everybody wanted to just get two or three minutes on Martin's

show because they knew what that would do their career. So you judge a motherfucker years down the road, right, where they basically when Martin goes out, guess what? Martin not doing no tour saying I'm doing 45 minutes where he was like y'all want to see me guess what y'all gonna see this young talent you're gonna see this person i'm putting people on how dare you even have come out your

fucking mouth and talk shit about this motherfucker how dare you talk shit about motherfuckers and talk shit about karen hart how dare you talk shit about a motherfucker that was rocking with a dude Nate smith rp passed away i remember when kevin hart was the one of the motherfuckers doing those comment cards all right all right i'm doing e-miss email list one person after i remember when fucking have fucking 20,000 people on Instagram, no, on Twitter. And at the radio, he was like, yo, the radio says, yo, D, this is probably, I've seen the hard work. I see him not just come to fucking New York and do the black rooms. I'm doing the black rooms.

I'm doing the white rooms. I'm doing all of this shit. How dare you? I'll just say this, and I'll answer this. It ain't no B for nothing. Cat Williams said, this is what Cat Williams said about Kevin Hart. How I find it's very strange that you just come from New York and then you have a lot. a TV show and a movie show and how does that

happen you were in New York. I'll tell you how it happens. You're on the biggest showcase in comedy. And you know what that is. JFL. Just for laughs. Kevin Hart was a product of that. Monique

was a product of that. Dave Chappelle was a product of that. No, Kevin Hart wasn't pounding the streets in LA, but he happened to be on a showcase. When you back in the day, you do it JFL. It was motherfuckers leaving there, they'll probably have $500 in the bank leaving with a quarter

million dollar development deal just to do nothing. That's the error it was. So just because you weren't in LA, doesn't mean you wasn't beating the pavement. And I don't care. In LA, you got LA in New York. Nobody, as a stand-up comic, grinds as hard as a comic come from New York

opposed to L.A. And the reason why, L.A. don't have that many stages. L.A. don't have that many stages. They used to tell you all the time. As a stand-up comic, if you're trying to be an actor or whatever, go to L.A. If you want to be a great stand-up comic, bang it out in New York. And this was the rule back of the day, Joe. Let Hollywood call you. You just don't go to L.A. to sleep on somebody's couch.

Some people had that story, but it was like you grind. And back then... Everybody's got their own path to know. You can do whatever the fuck you want. It's just work on your act. That's the point that I'm making. Yeah, it's just everybody's got their own path. The real problem in this conversation is what I said earlier. It's worrying about what other people think. The more you spend time worrying about what other people think,

the less you're worrying about what you're doing. You let less you're thinking about what you're actually trying to achieve. And I listen to what you're saying, and I don't listen to what you said. And the reason why I say that every time I go into this rabbit hole or whatever, it's the echo. It's like a rogan angel right here and is whispering, don't read the comments. Yeah, but I'm right. I still read them. I know.

You should. But I'm stopping. But this is another thing I didn't. What I didn't know is. is that white comedians actually have beef with each other. I did not know, or at least it's not, you don't hear about it. It's rare. It's more rare, and the ones who have beef are usually failures.

They usually people that aren't doing well. I got an example. I'm exposing the industry right now. I'm not exposing. I have an example that's so funny. And this was interesting. I was at the comedy store. Oh, you're telling me this.

This is so fucking funny to me, said. About two months ago, right? I'm good friends with Bill Burr. You know, we did. We had the, I'm rich bitch tour with Charlie Murphy, me, Bill Burr years ago. And I know Mark Marin, right? I don't know.

What I found out is I didn't know Mark Merron the way white people know Mark Merritt, right? So I know Mark Maron. Like, when I see Mark Merritt, I was like, oh, that's the guy that had one of the greatest, podcast out that guy that was one of the alternative comedy favorites mark marron's special so when i see mark marron i have a certain level of respect like oh that's the guy who did it or whatever so i was doing

an annie letterman's show for what an annie wood or whatever right and i love that girl um and i'm in a green room and i'm smoking and joint i forget who sponsors this weed but it was incredible right so i'm in here and i'm cracker jo's bill is right there and then mark is over it by the side of the door and I'm cracking jokes with Bill and everything and I felt something didn't. Nobody was really laughing at my jokes, right? All of a sudden, a whole fucking argument popped off. And it was like, it was white argument

because it was so nice. They were so gentlemen to each other. It was a whole bunch of, oh, yeah, but you'll never do my podcast. It was like podcast beats. I'm right in the middle. I don't even know. I didn't even know that they had beef like this,

but they were so gentle about it. But I tell you the difference between white beef and black beef, I never felt that I was going to get shot. Yo, I felt so safe. Yo, at anything, I thought it would be like lawsuits the next morning, defamation of character, slander. But I never knew that it was fucking Caucasian on Caucasian beef like that. And it was entertaining. This is an example.

Mark Maren was doing really well at one point in time in his career. And now he's not. So Mark Maren had the number one podcast. And after a while, his podcast wasn't even the top 200. It dropped off. Bill Burr, his careers took off. He's doing arenas. He's killing it.

Mark's not. And Mark finds reasons to criticize other people that are doing much better than him. And he focuses on that because he thinks he should be getting more than he deserves. But do you think that's going back to being a provocateur? He knows if he talked to shit. No, no, no. I think it's going back to being bitter and jealous. Right.

Thinking about other people instead of thinking about himself and why people don't want to go see him anymore. He was upset when we left the comedy store because we took the crowds away. And it's like, hey, you were on the fucking marquee, too, man. Right. They're not coming to see you. And the reason why they're not coming to see you is because you're not doing well.

And your podcast was in the top. It was number one. And when it was at number one, by the way, and that's why I always say about Mark Marin. He was great. Mark Marn was fun to hang out with when he was killing it. Right. Because he was happy.

Because he was getting validation. Because he had the number one podcast. We were friends. Like, I did his podcast. He did mine. We had a good time. I'd hug him when I see him. Like, we had gone back and forth many times

of having beef with each other. Do you think people... Let me finish. His problem was when everybody else started doing really good and he started dropping off. Right. That's what happened. Just what I don't understand.

Why can people understand that you have a moment? Like I was talking... Because he's a fucking narcissist and he wants the moment to always be around him. He wants it to always be about him. And when other people are doing better than him, he wants to talk shit about them. And that's where Bill had a problem with it.

You think been a narcissist in this field is a bad thing? think. For some reason, I think that kind of fuels you to be the person that you are, to be determined to do and not give a fuck about what nobody think. Well, having self-respect and having an ego where you care about what you put out, yes, that's a good thing. But making it all about you and not being able to appreciate other people's work is crazy because other people doing well can be fuel for you to be inspired and do better yourself. And that's a positive thing. And if these people are your friends and you love them and you care about them, you should be happy that they're killing it. And if you're not killing

anymore, you should try to figure out why. Because it's not like the door's not open. It's not like you're not getting on stage. It's not like you're not putting out specials. You should probably figure out why your podcast dropped from number one to not even in the top 200 anymore. Without anything happening, you didn't get arrested, there was no scandal,

there was nothing crazy. You should try to figure that out. And he doesn't do that because he's instead bitter. Bitter and jealous. He's always been like that. It's a story about John Stewart. And Andrew Schultz came on the podcast and told story about John Stewart and Merritt, where Maron confronted John Stewart, but John Stewart got some television show.

He called him a fucking sellout. He yelled at him all this different shit. John Stewart left the show, and they hired Marin to do the same show. Yeah. The same show that he was calling John Stewart for being a sellout. So how did you go from that to, okay, for you to have one of the biggest podcasts, at some point in your career, you had to be likable or you think people just wanted to do this show because of the platform?

There wasn't very many podcasts back then. Right. The thing that killed Marin's podcast, my personal opinion, no hate, is that he has this rant at the beginning of his podcast that's not entertaining. I don't think it's good. And the rant was long and he would just ramble about himself, was very self-obsessed. And I just don't think it was good. And I think that was part of the problem. It's also the problem was how he interviewed people.

He had a very confrontational interview style specifically with some comedians that he felt like were below him or that he could pick on. You would think that that style would work in this day and age with people. No, no, no, no, no. People don't want always to be uncomfortable. They want to like you, man. They want you to be a good person. People want train wrecks. They want train wrecks for 15 second or 30 minute, 30 second Instagram clips.

They don't want train wrecks to be their primary thing they're listening to when they're in traffic on the way to work. But the people that host these podcasts now, like, I think people going on these podcasts now and like this, this is going to be clickbait. We're going to go viral. Yeah, but they're not that talented. That's why they're doing it is because that's their only method of getting attention. If they were entertaining and interesting and fascinating, then their podcast would be about that. You know what? It's all in what you're trying to focus on.

What I try to focus on in my podcast is who do I want to talk to? I never have someone on and go, oh, this would be great. It would be very controversial. People will fucking hate them. It'll be crazy. They'll say wild shit. I never do that. My podcast is only about who do I want to talk to.

That's why I have a lot of people on that I'm even remotely famous because they're interesting. I find them interesting. I find with a book they wrote interesting, the documentary they made interesting, I want to know something about them. It stimulates my curiosity. Do you think that there's going to be a shift? Do you think that these salacious interviews, these interviews with the provokter? I don't think about it. Okay.

That's my key. I don't think about it. I would say this. You know what's funny about what you said? That I was with Dave a while ago, and he echoed the exact same thing. And I was having this conversation with him. He said, Dee, I don't even think about that shit. Yeah, don't think about it.

There's other things to think about. This is, I've said this too many times if people heard this before, I'm sorry. Think of your focus and your attention, like a number. Think of you have like a hundred points in a day to spend on things. If you spend 30 of those points thinking about haters or 30% those thinking about bitter people, 30% thinking about other people that are doing better than you, that's 30% that you robbed from the 100% that you have to focus on your life. I have things to do, man.

I have a family. I have friends. I have loved ones. I have interests. I have hobbies. I have comedy and podcasts and the UFC and all these different things that I like to do. And I think about those things. I don't think about negative, stupid things with people that have bitter, angry minds that are concentrating on other people's success.

and trying to tear them down all the time. Because they're trying to tear them down all the time because they compare themselves to them and they don't like how they stack up. They don't like the fact that that person is doing better. They don't like the fact that person's more successful. So they try to take things either out of context or they try to misrepresent who that person is.

They try to change public perception of that person to try to drag that person down. And it's transparent. The reason why it doesn't work is because people inherently know what you're trying to do. It might get people, oh, there's beef, oh, there's beef. Those are simple-minded people that you're always going to attract, but you're not going to change people's opinions of things. It's a trick. It's a trap that you're playing on yourself.

It's a waste of your precious resources. You only have so much time in the day. My time I spend on things that I think are interesting or beneficial or things that excite my curiosity. And I think that is the way I like to live my life. Now, if you like to live your life, constantly engaged in beefs and being filled with anxiety and stress, You want to do that? Okay. But those are bitter fucking people. I don't want to be a bitter person.

In another life, could you have been a therapist? Well, I majored in psychology for the brief amount of time that I was in college. That was what I was interested in. But I was doing that because I was fighting at the time. And I was trying to figure out how to manage my mind. So I was trying to figure out the inner workings of the human psyche. Do you think, I know this is, I'm not, do you think your success made you almost, a more calm person to not give a fuck?

Well, it certainly helps, right? You don't have to give a fuck if you have enough money that you could just like disappear off into the sunset and never have to worry about money because a lot of people are always worried about money and so you're always constantly in the state of anxiety you're trying to get more. That helps.

But it's also, it's like there's other things in life. I concentrate on my loved ones. I concentrate on my friends. I concentrate on things I enjoy doing, on fun. This life is short, man. You and I are 58 years old. We're more than halfway dead. Why would you spend time concentrating on people you don't like?

Like, there's one thing if someone's wronging you. It's one thing if you find out you have a business partner who's been stealing money. Or you have someone who's lying about you. Shut up. No, I'm just saying. His own brother stole from. I know Dana's like just crazy. Yeah, the fuck.

Yeah, it's very interesting. And I'm at a place right now. I was with John Hamm, right? San Francisco. And I had just did a show with Dave. And it was interesting. He said something to me.

He's in the back and he's with his wife and me kicking in it. He used to come out to summer camp and everything hang out with us. And I'm going to say we're like super friends, but we have mutual respect for each other. And it was interesting because we're in the green room. And this is after I had just slayed this audience or whatever, right? And I'm feeling good. And he said, Donnan, he said, what is it that you really want to do?

He said, what is it that you want? I said, what kind of question? He said, no, I mean, what is it? is it TV, is it TV show, is it movies? I was like, John, I'm doing exactly what I want to do. For me to be able to wake up, not have to work for anybody, call my own shots, make a fair wage, take care of my families, enjoy my friends and everything,

and it's me connecting with a God-given talent. Anything else is a bonus. I don't look at it like, I need the private jet and everything. Certain things you're like, you know, that would be nice. but I just look at what this life has given me and I'm appreciative of that. I know so many people of my class, whatever, that aren't doing nearly as well as I am

or even the ones that are, that don't mean that they're happy. You know what I'm saying? So when he asked my question, I didn't think any bad of what I was like this. I don't get caught up on looking at somebody they got this, they got that. I like this.

Am I happy? Am I comfortable? Do I get to do what I want? So whether I tell people all this all the time, whether I get another film opportunity, whether I get another TV show or whatever or any of that, I'm living what some people's dreams are.

Yes. And it's not my dream, it's my reality. Yes. And I also had to realize this is so easy for us to do. You can be so connected with somebody and even with my situation, with my connection with Dave and everything. I'm a huge fan of Dave.

He's giving me great opportunities and everything. But at some point in my life, I had to say, you can't be caught up in somebody else's dream so much that you forget your realities and my reality is whether I'm alongside of him or what I'm doing it I've got to continue to be down there Rawlins I got to continue to support my family

I've got to continue to do things that I do and it's so easy it's so easy for me to get caught I'm like I'm rolling with Dave we're on the jets we're doing this type of shit but then I'll lose focus on who I am and I realize for me and my career continues to go when I know how to make that separation. I do have... Yeah, but the thing is,

even when you're caught up with Dave, you still love him and you don't hate him at all. You're not jealous of him. Not at all. You might get caught up in the wave because you're hanging out with one of the greatest comics that's ever lived, but it doesn't mean that it's a negative.

And you know, another thing, let me add to that. And I'm not blowing my own horn or whatever. Like, you say one of the greatest communities ever live, right? If a person had a conversation with Dave Chappelle, people could say whatever I'm wearing about people think. If you ask Dave, who is in his top five comedians

my name's going to come up so as much as people they always try to pin me like blah blah this and everything I respect the fact that he respects me I respect him when we work together we push each other we make each other whatever people want to say

we make each other better and what other people understand is that like he's like truly my friend you know what I mean it's not like I just work when a show he's my friend. And even when some of my fondest memories, especially when I come here,

is when we was doing those fucking shows. Yeah. When we was doing shit, nobody was doing. When we were doing those lockdown shows, ooh, that was fun. Yo, it was so. That was wild times. It was, it was already, we already have a community.

We all have mutual respect for each other. But the thing that made that so special wasn't nobody doing this shit. Right. That's what made it, and it really, one thing about the pandemic, it made you appreciate life. a lot more than before the pandemic.

Yeah, I mean, you appreciate freedom. Freedom. Bill you do shows. Remember we did those shows outside and everybody was wearing a mask? It was so stupid. But we did, but we. And they all got tested too. We got, they was, I was, I had so much fun during the pandemic.

I was almost embarrassed to show the pictures I wanted to show like, faceless shit. Yo, no mask. We would take pictures and people was like this, look at him. He could kill my grandmother. I'm like, all, first of all, you did it. Dave did it. I was like, people's like this.

Oh, it must be nice to have rich friends to have testing machines. I was like, you're absolutely right. It is. It's beautiful. It is the most amazing shit ever. Dave Chappelle raped my nose for two summers in a row when we were doing the shows

and the cornfields and shit. But this is what people don't understand. He took the opportunity. That village of Yellow Springs, he made it as safe as it could be. Like any place we were going, hotel staff. Everybody had an opportunity to get tested. And I remember

this was very interesting. When the bubble we did this was Bob Sagitt, R-I-P, we were doing these shows and I think that before Bob passed away when he came out to Yellow Springs and was hanging out with Dave and everything, it gave him some incentive to want to go back on the road to do it. He just got really excited about doing it again. We did like 55 shows the summer was over, the run was clear.

We had no positives or anything. Dave extended the show another week. And that week was when the bubble popped, right? And now everybody was like freaking out. Like, oh, my God, these same women that was people coming out there when they was getting flown out in jets, they weren't getting traffic. But Dave created the environment. He went his friends around. We was going to restaurants.

We would have the whole spot. We was just doing all this stuff. Nobody was thinking about the possible. consequences of that. And I remember when this one girl was like, oh my God, I don't even know when I'm here. Then I looked at Dave. I was like, yo, man, damn, we almost made it, man, through. He was like, Donil, it's going to be okay.

He said, you got to realize this is the reason why we test. When we first got our first positive, had we not been testing, it could have been crazy. And we got a first positive because dudes went to do somebody else's podcast and they didn't test. Remember that? I remember that. I remember that because I remember that. I remember that

Cena, it was so funny. Yeah, that was here. Yeah. And it was like, something was different because we had one positive and you remember that backstage used to be packed out,

right? It started to be lower and lower, right? It was basically like me, Syf sounds, somebody else was in the green room, right? And then Big Jay came. That's one of my friends, good friends. Big Jake came back and he had this look

on his face like it's over, right? He came in there and I looked, I said, boss man got it. like, yep, right? And another thing, Dave could have did. This is why I respect this character. He could have been, at that time,

he could have just been in the mask, went on stage, went back out. He canceled show, but the funniest shit, it's a hole at Stubbs. Roman sold out, right? And then Sina comes back, and Sina was like, I need you to go out there

and tell people that the show is cancel, right? I say, you don't need me to do that shit, nigga, because the minute, it's one thing, if I go out there, people can be like, show starting. right and as a comedian I'm not going to not tell jokes

and then I'm like oh yeah Dave I'm not going to show up but that was the crazy thing about that everybody at the line hotel they was making jokes Joe they call it COVID row because we had the whole had the whole floor locked down right

and everybody in our team got it but it felt like an old school chicken pock party you know what I'm saying we got it we got it what I tell you man what we did like everything was like okay make sure you had your vitamins all that type of shit but the beauty of it was we was like you know people was testing out like eight or nine days right so we thought we was going to leave after a while we was like i was like wait a minute the next room was gonna be in 10 days and for some

reason everybody went back to being negative we closed did more shows and we got the fuck about it here but it was a beautiful time man it was a beautiful time it was a fun to be alive yep it was a fun time but it was crazy and then we did that what that fucking joint we did It was in Tacoma. The Super Dome. That was wild. 25,000? Whatever it was.

We broke the Tacoma Dome record. I never been in a place where the laughter was so hard. It felt like helicopters. It was crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy. This is what I respect about what you guys did. You got people saying they're doing arenas and shit.

But normally, but that was pre-COVID, brother. It was pre-COVID? Yeah, that was pre-COVID. That was before everything popped off. What I will say about, a real arena show. You got the arena show where a quarter of the venue is being used

for stage. Right. So it ain't the true capacity. Right. But the shows you motherfuckers were doing. It was in the round. Right. Well, the wildest thing was walking through the crowd to get to the stage. Man, crazy time. You've experienced this shit

of that walk from the UFC shit. Man, I'm so grateful for you guys' friendship and everything. And for me, it was so special for me because I didn't sell a ticket nobody else, no open to sell. You and Dave sold those tickets, right? But the best

feeling for me, Joe, was when I go out and DJ trauma and be like, you've seen them on HBO's The Wire. You seen them on BMF, whatever, but simple line. But you fell in love was Ashley Larry Shepal show, and them people fucking go crazy. I don't give a fuck if you'd ever been in the fist fight in your

life when you come through them tunnels. You're doing this shit right here. You feel like Tyson, like just get me a robe. Just give me a time. I'm about to go beat these motherfuckers up. And every show we had, there was no room for being okay. You had to be on your game every time. Yeah, it was fun.

It was a good time. Well, that was when all that COVID shit went down with me, when CNN turned my face green. That was because of a Nashville show that we were doing, that we had to cancel. Yeah, I didn't know that. That's what that was. Yeah, we were supposed to do a show that weekend. And I got COVID the previous weekend. I was doing an arena with Tony.

in Florida. And I got COVID in Florida and then I made that video on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday. It was like the third day after I got COVID when I got over it and I was like, you know, I feel fine

but we have to cancel the shows this weekend. And that's when all the shit went down because I took Iver Macden. That was up with that was that was those radio shows. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah, he has to answer everything. Yo, if he don't have the answer

at least he's fucking trying to find it. It's so interesting. Well, whether or not I had the answer, the crazy thing is I was better. I was already better. And they turned my face green on CNN. We got to see how crazy the media really is. Like, they didn't want to hear nothing, but you have to take this vaccine.

And you have to do that. And if you didn't take this vaccine, you're a part of the problem. It's sorry, I just don't, as devastating as that time was, I'm just, how is it just like fucking over now? Is it herd immunity? How is it just like? It's hurt immunity. Yeah. It's also, you know, everybody who got it, got it.

You got immunity because of it. And then also whatever variants are still left, they're significantly diminished. That's how viruses generally... It's like a cold strand now, right? Yes. Well, that's how viruses generally go. They become more transmissible but less potent over time. Yeah, and that's what happened.

I'm going to tell you, there was a time, though, man. I even said, man, maybe it was just something about how people got along with each other. I was like we should do like once a year just have a week of just lockdown Yo just so you can get it It makes you appreciate freedom That's for sure It made me appreciate nature bro

I bought a fucking house of yellow spring because I was like You know what trees woods I don't know if the streets can handle this But I became a bird watcher bro I watched birds I watch birds You know what that does is my street credit What

To know the difference between the cardinal and the blue jay Is that bad? It's not the most... Listen. There's a blue jay call. I can't be in the street talking about those good shit. If you can't appreciate nature, that's whatever.

That's a bullshit narrative. That's ridiculous. Here's the thing. I didn't crash out today. Didn't crash out. I know people think I'm a crash out, King. It's not that. Sometimes I just need to talk.

You mean on this show today? Yeah. What did I? No. No, you definitely accused Jamie wearing a leather jacket. Jamie did have a leather jacket. He had a leather jacket on, man.

And I think he brushed his eyebrows, too. It was everything. I was like, I'd never seen this sexy side of Jamie. He had like a British accent. He was like, I think he won't a book. He owned a shadow. I was like, who is? He brushed his eyebrows.

I was like, who the fuck is this person, man? It was something different. We definitely went through something that most people will never experience in their life. Nope. And most previous generations never experienced it. Having a nationwide, worldwide pandemic that everybody freaked out and we didn't. Not only do we didn't freak out, we did shows, we had a good time, we hung out together. Those after parties, when we go to the line, you had a DJ, we would laugh and laugh.

We would laugh to 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. You know, I, so much fun. I was dating the time. She couldn't believe that she was like, I would be like this. So what do you do? I was like, well, I was at the line kicking him with Dave and Joe. What are y'all doing?

Just talking and laughing to 3.30 in the morning. And they was like, get the fuck out of here. You was fucking. No, I wasn't. We was just on some brohood shit. It was just, it was really good. And we also realized how special it was that we could do this while the whole world was locked down. Yep.

I'm telling you, I was embarrassed to show pictures. My mother would call me, you better be careful out there. I'm like, man, I'm getting tested. We got tested more than probably anybody in the country. I got tested every day because I was doing podcast through the whole thing. I did your show doing that one time. Yeah. And then we didn't.

I sat down before I got the results. The last time I was here, you was like, did he get the test? I'm like, I'm like, please don't come in here. Like, get this motherfucker out of here. Well, we definitely had a couple people that tested positive. We had to get them out. And I tested positive once. But the thing about it, taking those precautions, you could isolate it.

You knew where it came and you shut it down. That's one thing. If you're not doing that, it's all over the place. Just think about it. Imagine if Jamie would have got COVID, then we would have never seen his sexy side now. Jamie got COVID. He got COVID before anybody. He got COVID really early on when there was no vaccine, no treatment, no nothing.

He had to take a whole week off. Maybe that's why he has the attitude that he has. Yo, young and all this six. But we did the Kanye podcast. You had COVID that week, right? Yeah. Yeah, he missed the Kanye podcast. Yeah, but I'm sorry, Jamie, if you thought I said anything that was kind of disrespectful to your character.

Well, it was just totally false. No, it wasn't. I'm telling you. That fucking ponytail, I don't know what the fuck he did about it that time. Like a Steven Seagall ponytail, like Slip back. And not only that, but he put his hair back like this. Mm-hmm. Almost like a ditty party.

That's how he started ditty party. Oiled up. Yeah. I'm going to say that because I was, never mind. I never went to a ditty park. I have a photo, but I never went to a ditty park. Jesus question.

Yeah, it's like, I think people are going to be wiser if something like that happens again. Could it ever happen again? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. There's a lot of people to think they engineered that whole thing and they wanted it to happen. It's the largest transfer of upward transfer of wealth

in human history. Small businesses went down. Big businesses got made more money. Look what it did to Zoom. Yep. Zoom took off. I remember Zoom because I was, I had a show in Naples, whatever. I met this doctor that he wanted me to be on this podcast.

And I was like, how we're going to do? He said, we can do it by Zoom. This was when it was only like for like business people. It was really like the nerdy thing. Yeah, that's what it used to be. Yeah. It used to be. But the pandemic, it blew it up.

It was like now Zoom is like, that's the best way you don't want to talk to somebody in the phone. call you, oh, I'm on a Zoom right now. It's so, like, in everybody's household, and that shit blew up. So many businesses did the same thing. Is anybody using that anymore? Zoom? Yeah. They use it for an excuse not to talk to somebody.

Yeah. Did they do Zoom podcast anymore? Do people do Zoom podcasts? I never hear that term. It used to be things like, oh, we're going to do it on Zoom. I don't hear that anymore. A few other platforms exist now. I don't even think people discuss it.

Yeah, they had one one. It was at Clubhouse, whatever, all of these things. Oh, yeah. Clubhouse. Clubhouse is a big one. That was a big one where people were essentially doing podcasts. Like, anybody could just, like, chime in and talk shit. People's getting, like, a million followers in three days and shit.

Like, yeah. Oh, yeah. There was a lot of that. And a lot of people thought that that was going to keep going. Like, Clubhouse is going to be the new thing. I'm like, it's just bad podcasting. And it's what, there was only, so many things. That battle, the versus battles that they do now.

And when they have, like, it's mostly, it's been hip hop and R&B. I think it was, who was it? It was, um, damn, Swiss B. in Timberland, I think. They started this thing during the pandemic. It was versus, right? Where you have an artist versus another artist in like a competitive type of situation.

They didn't win anything, but it was just entertaining for everybody. And that went from like, it was so low level. Like people was in front of their computers. It was freezing up and everything, but it was what everybody was doing. Now that's like one of the biggest things. Now they did one at Madison Square Gardens.

Like it's a big thing now when you want to, it's just like a competition. Like you got, I think that, They had cash money and no limit records, but it's very, I don't see no white verses, but it's a popular thing. And it started because of the pandemic. Well, so many businesses started during the pandemic because a lot of people got laid off. So they started their own business. A lot of online businesses started.

A lot of people quit their jobs because they realized, look, they could just take this shit away from me at any minute. Why am I doing something that I hate when I thought there were security in it? There's no security in it. I'm going to start my own business. Also, even like you're an example of what happens when you finally realize that you don't need Hollywood the way it used to be. No. Well, we figured that out a long time ago. We figured that out when the podcast started kicking off in like the early 2010s.

I realized that. I was like, I don't need TV shows anymore. We figured that out in like 2013, 2014. And Hollywood is not like, it used to be, I'm a very old school guy, but I remember when I first started, you couldn't make it in this business. You had to be in New York or L.A. There was no producers going to, if they wasn't going to Toledo, Ohio, there was no way. This was big. Well, there was no comedy communities outside of New York and L.A.

No, not at all. Not a real community. There might have been like a good club that had some, like Denver always had like good opening acts. Yeah, good community. Comedy works were responsible for that. It wasn't like a real hub like Austin is now. And that wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the pandemic. People wouldn't have moved.

They wouldn't have moved. No. And you brought a whole community here. As much as this place was always big for music or whatever, but I mean, there's no way anybody cannot agree with like what you did and what you made it appealing to a lot of people is that you could go somewhere else, get a better quality of life. Yeah.

and everything. Lower cost of living, better quality of life, no traffic, nicer people, and no Hollywood bullshit. The problem with the, L.A. is always going to be poisoned by the idea of going there to become famous. Right. That whole idea was, it was permeated in the culture of L.A. And that fame was like the number one commodity. But back then it was, that was the case. It was the case.

But the problem is that's bad for art. that's bad for your ability to produce shit. I mean, you got great comics that came out of L.A., but that was in spite of what L.A. had to offer. It wasn't because of. Whereas Austin, like, the main reason people come here, first of all is Kill Tony, because, like you said,

Kill Tony is one of the rare places where you can be a comic that's been doing comedy three, four years. I mean, even just start now, but you got some talent, you can have a fucking career. Like a real career and it'll launch. Look, you got Cam Patterson, who's on SNN. right now. You got all these people

like William Montgomery, David Lucas, they're killing it on the road, selling out everywhere they go. Ari Maddie, these guys, I mean, they have a real career now because of Tony. But you know, another thing that they don't understand is like this is what I say, and I usually use you as an example. Whenever you hear about somebody

saying that they want to do a podcast, the first thing, a certain name is like, I want to be Joe Rogan. And I said this before, nobody wanted to be Joe Rogan fucking 25 years ago. They didn't want to put the work in. They want to see the accolades, the fortune you've built.

They see that part, but nobody sees the hard work. Even with Kill Tony, the fact that during the pandemic, when he could have let the whole platform just fall apart, like we don't know when we're going to do it, he dug deeper and figured out of the way, I'm going to continue to do it. Nobody ever respects the journey. Right. And if you think about it, Joe, and you're probably the same way,

most successful people, and I know some very, very well, people, right? And when they talk about their career, whatever, they hardly ever talk about the yacht. They ever talk about the fucking mansion they got in Paris. You know, they talk about it was just me and my wife and we drove a Toyota, you know, a Toyota Corolla, and we was like, we was down to our last 10 bucks and she did this. That's the most interesting part of the story for most successful people, and people don't understand that. Right. They only think about where you got to, and I want to get to there too. They want to skip everything. I hear people right now. I hear people right now. I want to be like stand

up. I'm like, all right, well no, when I was doing HBO's The Wire, right? This guy I knew I grew up with. He was like, this motherfucker said, yo, Dee, what's the number to the wire? I want to call him. I want to be on the wire. Like there's a wire. Hey,

is this David Simon? Yeah. I could be Omar. They don't. I was like, and guess what? If I knew the number to the wire, I'm not giving it to you. I'm not giving it to you. I want you to give it to you. I want you to get that busy signal. That's what it's.

Nobody ever wants to respect the grind. And everybody wants the rewards of the grind. But it's not everybody. It's just people that are missing it. They're not getting what it's all about. Like Kill Tony's a great example of that. I was there in the early days of Kill Tony. When Tony started out in 2013, there was no one in the crowd.

There was no one there. It was a small show. You'd have a few comedians. You know, I was doing it back before I was back at the comedy store, but I was still banned. So I was doing it from the Ice House. Right. And he didn't do it thinking it was going to be the number one show in the world

and he was going to be on Netflix. And he did it because it was fun to do. And he loved it. And he wanted to do a great job. And he wanted to make it better every week. And he kept doing it and kept getting better at it. It's the same thing with this podcast. This podcast didn't make money for years.

Didn't make any money for years. It cost money. But the most successful people are the ones like, Like even with when I first started doing comedy, right? I never, do you have some comedians to go out there? Like, I want to do comedy. I want to get the money. I want to get pussy off of it.

Right? When I first started, I never, the only thing I wanted to do, Joe, I wanted to be good. I was like this, if I'm good, all those other things that are rewards of that, that would happen. But I had to be good first. And here's the thing that I think, especially when you have these like social media comedians or whatever, the thing that the interesting thing about it is kind of, kind of hard to tell somebody to work on their craft when they're getting all the perks of

what the craft can present them at an early, early stage. It's hard to tell somebody that's only been doing it for two years, just making $50,000 or $100,000 a month off of monetizing something. They're like this. You need to get better. Hello. Well, they don't have to. Like, do whatever the fuck you want to do.

If you just want to do that, do that. And also, some of them are going to figure it out anyway. Some of them are going to figure out, I'm not getting better. I'll get better. I'm going to work harder at it. There's going to be people that don't figure things out no matter what you do in this life. There's going to be a bunch of people that have a distorted perception of what success is all about and what you really want. It's always going to be that.

What is, what is, this is an interesting question. What is your definition of success? Happiness. Happiness and doing something that you enjoy doing. It's something that's challenging. So what is your definition of happiness? friendship, love, doing something I enjoy doing, doing it well, doing it better all the time, getting better at it. You know, I mean, you're, and struggle.

You're always going to have some kind of a struggle. And that struggle, hopefully, is you trying to be better at the thing that you're doing. You, what gives you, this is an interesting question. What gives you the incentive to always continue to want to perform? What gives you incentive to always want to do Joe Rogan and friends when you could just sit back and fucking just do everything? It's fun. It's first of all,

the green room on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at the mothership some of the funniest times I've ever had in my fucking life. It's so fun. We have so much fun there. There's Ron White there and Shane Gillis and Tony and it's fun. It's, I mean, it's a community. It sounds like you're trying to give me to change my fight. We enjoy our times.

You want to come on. I got to come to a Tuesday. What are you doing tomorrow? Come on, Daniel. What do you got going on tomorrow? Where are you headed back to Ohio? No, I'm going to L.A. Do you have a show?

I got a son. Okay, well, that's different. That's more important. But I can just give him some roadblocks money. You can see, I'll give you some roadblocks money. He'll be cool. Let me see. I might, because, Cam, I wish I would have even thought about it before.

But I might, I might, because I haven't had that experience. Oh, calm down then. If you can. If your son's cool with it, do it. If not, there's always another time. I can brag it. And this is another thing about me being an older dad. Like, my son is really an age.

He could be my grandson. I don't have time to do all those instill values and morals and shit. I'm like this. Well, candy shut this motherfucker up. Yo, I'm like, yo, let's go to McDonald's or whatever. But yeah, I'm going to see. I would definitely consider that. Consider it.

Yeah. But that's what I like. I mean, I'm just enjoying my life. And I like to do things that I find that are interesting and chat. challenging, and I like to have conversations with interesting people. And I like the fact that people enjoy it still. You know, when I first met you were, you know, and I already knew that you had the ultimate platform, right? And I never, this is me.

And I don't know if this is what happened. But I was like, I never want to be like, hey, Joe Rogan, I'm down there wrongs and so on. And the only respect I ever wanted to get from my peers and people that were doing it was like from the stage. You know, I always like, I was like, if we ever make the connection. I wanted to be off of, yo, this motherfucker is funny first. Not just like, hey, you know, I rock with Dave and I think that that was what happened.

I used to spend time, and I never even to this day, I don't, you know, I just look at like, I just want people, you can respect me as a man and respect my character or whatever, but at the end of the day, what I love to do the most is stand up, I want you to be like,

yo, this motherfucker puts it work in and then we can build everything off of that. That's the respect I want to I want the respect from what I put in the work I put in. And people can acknowledge that. And that's what builds my relationship with you. It's built my relationships with all of these, all these guys, all of these people that I fuck with now.

It ain't because anything other than like, he's a dope comic. And then you can find out of him a good dude after. Yeah. It's that. And then after that, it's got to be like, are you cool? Right. Is he fun to hang out with?

Right. Yeah. Barry Kess said that one time. he said that in one of his podcasts, it's one of the things that separate like who goes on the road or so-and-so is if you're a good hang. Yeah.

Oh, my God. That's everything. I don't know how many people quote Barrycats, but I want to share this story. You might be the only one. You said probably the only one. But you said something earlier about undeniable, right?

Yeah. I remember when I first moved from D.C. And I moved to New York, I was doing the Chitlin circuit, the black circuit. I was popular in the black community, whatever. I was like, I don't think this is going to be enough.

I want to do the mainstream stuff. I want to do these other things, right? And Barry Katz, Dave used to host this comedy night, this place called El Flamingos in D.C., in New York. And Barry Katz saw me there one day. He was like, I don't think I've ever seen a comedian that go in front of an audience that were ready to rip someone's head off

and you can hear silence. You know, that's the control I had with the audience. So we built sort of a respect for each other. And I remember one time I was at, a comedy seller and he was there. And I knew that he was back then, whatever you want to say about him, nobody had a roster bigger than Barry Katz.

Back then in like 97 or whatever, he had everybody. The list goes on and on. And I knew he was a fan of mine. And I said, Barry, man, I'm trying to work these clubs, these mainstream clubs where I'm having a hard time getting into passing these clubs.

I was like, could you make a phone call or whatever for me? And he looked at me, he said, He said, this is what you do. I'll probably do the worst. Everybody does a better, better Barry catch. You got on and do Barry like this.

Yes. Okay, I'll try to get it. He was like, This is what you do. And slow it down. He said, Donnell, just rip.

Right, he said. Yeah, be undeniable. That's what he said. He said, he said, I'm not talking. And I tell, this is advice I give people. They say,

one these sorts. I was like, I'm not talking about have one good set and you have four, bad says I'm talking about the consistency where every time somebody sees you go on that stage, you blowing the roof off. And once you do that, if the managers are going to come to you, they're going to hear about it.

That's the one of the things that a lot of people try to skip. They're like, oh, how was your set? It was okay, but I can't talk to you. Unless you're just straight, just destroying shit everywhere, then you've got other shit to work on. Yeah. And there's also a lot of people that are very delusional about how, well they're doing because they want so much. They want it all to be about them.

So they think they should have already had this. They should have already had that. Why don't I have a sitcom? Why don't I have a this? Why don't I have a that? And I always said this is another thing. Even with these lineups, you do these shows, whatever, always say that you have time to have a defining moment.

If you're in the room, right? And for some reason, the room is on fire. The club is on fire. Everybody is ripping. You probably won't stand out as much as that night when everybody, was bombing. You've seen rooms where everybody come back saying and say that crowd was weird but then you got one motherfucker back there like this. I don't give a fuck what y'all doing.

I'm going to elevate this. Those are the times when you got to fucking stand up. Yeah, well we used to see that all the time at the store, like late night at the store in particular where like you know because the way the store works the show starts at 8 p.m. And it goes on until 2 a.m. And there's a lot of people that get there at 8 a.m. that are like, you know, tourists that are in town. And they sit there for the whole fucking show. They came to see the comedy store.

Yeah. So by the time, 12, 30 rolls around. Fuck, they've seen everything. And so you get this low period. And then someone will go up and just tear that fucking place apart. For 50 people. When I used to, I was so naive when I first started that we used to have open mics, right? And the open mic list would be like 25 people, right?

And they fucking, the guy that was running, they hated me so much because I used to talk shit in the audience and everything. And they would keep bumping me down, right? And my dumb ass never got mad. Right. I was like this, yeah, they want me the headline, right? 25 comedians. I took that, I was like, yeah, except I didn't think about audience fatigue or anything. Oh, boy.

I just was like, yeah. And it would be. And but I'm telling you, I think that was one of the things that made me strong because I was like, I was like, I'm going to do what the next person. There's one story. This is one of, if you ask Dave Chappelle one of the doperest sets he's ever seen, I just would happen to be a part of that. It was at the Hollywood Bowl years ago, about three years ago, right?

Is that when he got attacked? No, no, that wasn't that. It was like the year before. You know Jeff Will's Live Nation, right? Sure. So we're doing. Shout out to Jeff. Shout out to Jeff.

We're doing a show. You know, Hollywood. both 18,000 people, right? So show starts at 7 o'clock, right? Jeff comes up to me. He was like, Donnie, I got some good news and bad news. He said, what? He said, we're going to start on time.

It's only but 700 people out there, right? Now, you imagine what several hundred people look like in front of an 18,000 place, right? He said, there's only 700 people out there. He said, well, I can let you start now or we can wait 10 minutes. I was like, Jeff, it's not like 17,000 people going to show up in 10 minutes. I said, give me the mic now. Big ass stage. I jump off the stage, right?

Dave and all these people in the green room, I jump off the stage. I go into the audience. I'm literally going to each person in the theater. And I'll get you a picture. You can answer this. I'm going to each person.

Why didn't they wait for the people to show up and sit down? That's what I wanted to say, but they were just like the show has to continue. I don't allow that. I never allow that. They've tried to do that before with me

and they say, we're going to have to pay more money. If the show goes over, I go, then the show goes over when we pay more money. Get the fuck out of here. But for me, it was a moment because any other comedian, not any other, most people were like this, oh, was nobody

out there, so many excuses. I jumped off stage, I was like, no, I can't be up here. Looked like I'm about to be auctioned off. I go in an audience, I'm going to each joint, right? And I'm fucking killing. It's 700 people in front at 18,000. That's a great way to start a show.

But listen, and I'm like this, and here's the fucked up thing about this. Nobody's going to know about it, because you're fucking phones are locked up, right? Yo, it was a moment. Dave, everybody for the Greenwood came out, right? And Dave told me to this day, he said, if I was doing a class on stand-up comedy,

he said, I would use this as an example of, like, owning up to it. And it was so crazy, man. It was like, and it was just, it was crazy. I remember another time I was working with, I think I was working with you. It was me, you, and Dave, and I think it was a time. We was doing an outdoor theater, and it was supposed to be a break.

It was supposed to be me. It was supposed to be, I think, you, Tony, or whatever, or something. Then it was a break, and then it was going to be me and Dave. But it was still daytime, right? Where was this? I can't remember the place. It was still dead. Jeff, he came up to me.

I was like, I was like, I already know. I'm going to have to go on now. And I literally had to perform. until it started getting dark. Oh, I remember this show. And I was saying to myself, I was like, ain't no way. I was like this, ain't no way they give a Rogan. And it wasn't this shitty on, people just hadn't come yet.

Right. I was like, I knew, I was going to even suggest. I was like, nah, we had these two halves, right? And it was, and that was another example. Okay, you got to do what you got to do. And I had to go up there. It wasn't a spot that I expected or whatever, but I was like this, you know, for the sake of the show.

And I'm always like, what do we need to do to support this? and we had to bring it down we had to buy some more time and then by the time you got on stage everybody was seated it was dark it was dark that was outside of San Francisco I can't remember

that was California that was California that shit was fun but I tell people all the time that I do slight mental I was like man it's certain times where you gotta do what the next person it's not gonna do you can't bitch about shit and at the end of the day you gotta be a fuck

I know when I used to do these shows with I used to fucking get the shittiest time. Like, well, we're at 30% capacity that I'm like, man, half of these motherfuckers are not even going to see me. But I looked at it like this. Well, the people that's going to see me, they're going to remember it, you know? And you just got to keep on going. That's a good attitude.

Yep. Yeah. That's healthy. See, I feel like this. Very productive. This conversation is going to bode well with my mental health. Yeah, I think so, too. And I think it.

Everything except the lies you told about Jamie. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna start taking fucking videos. I wish I would have had it. Yeah, I wish he did it too. And the thing about it was... You would see, like, oh man, he didn't even have a leather jacket on it.

And he wasn't even talking to me. He was talking to me like, what is it? No, I'm gonna look at that. I have walked up to you and even know if I was at first. Guess why? Why didn't I know? I never know that. I was like, who was this fake-ass,

Jamie-ass motherfucker? It's like, it was almost like, remember when family battles, Urkel and then Stefan It was two characters They had the they had the like the geeky Urkel and then his alter ego Whatever he was just this cool ass

He was the same person Whatever happened to that dude Erkel? Yeah He's been around What's that? He's selling weed? He was and his weed is really good He's got a weed

Urkel purple? It's the best He got this joint hero and it's like some type Italian noodle The spiral noodle he used that as a filter But also I spent a lot of time with him because he would come out to the cornfields or whatever

so I've been seeing him he's got a talk show Didn't he get jacked? Isn't he like Is that him? Julia White? Yeah I don't know. I heard Ergo got in great shape. Yeah but he's a good guy man but he's another one of those celebrities I know that want to do comedy

but don't have the hard to do it. Always I was like he said no no no no don't do that but he's a he's a great guy It's hard to start out already famous That's one of the things that I really respected about Charlie Charlie was already famous when he was starting comedy. Do you know who started, Charlie?

Who? Me. Did you? And this is how it would happen. When we were doing the Chappelle show, and it's safe to say, like, nobody was really making money. You know in your contract, when you, in your contract, if your show just blows up, you got to stick to whatever you was getting for the contract. Right. So we weren't making a lot of money during the show.

But I was like this, we're too popular right now. At that time, it was me and Charlie. We was, it was Dave, me and Charlie, like the biggest names on the show. So this was Mike Berkowitz, who's Dave, who's head. of William Morris right now, right? He was a young agent at the time, right? He was coming up. And I was like, I told Jason, my manager at the time job, Jason Steinberg,

I said, man, we got to do a tour or something. I was like, yo, everybody's talking about I'm rich bitch. I was like, let's do I'm rich bitch tour, right? He was like a good idea. I said, me and Charlie can do it. At the time, that was only a two-man show. Charlie didn't have no time or anything. And I was like, you know what?

I want to do it because it was my idea. I said, I want to do me, Charlie. I said we need another comedian. At the time, Bill Burr was not making a lot of money doing stand-up. And I'm not disrespecting, but everybody knew he was going to blow. But that was early on in Korea. And all Bill had to do was have a situation like he had in Philly. Everybody knew he was going to blow.

So I said, why don't we do a tour? Me, Charlie, and Bill Burr. That should have been hot. Charlie had never did stand-up. And I used to, he used to always crack jokes and shit. I was like, yeah, you talk a lot of shit. But once that microphone, you're a bitch-ass motherfucker. So Charlie was a guy like, don't threaten him with anything, right?

So this was when they had the laugh factory in New York, the Times Square, right? One of my friends was doing the show there. I was like, Charlie, yo, we're going to do this tour. You got to at least have 10 minutes. He could have, at that time, Charlie was so hot. People would have just yelled out, Charlie Murphy! For five minutes. He was the MC.

We just needed his face to be there. And this was, it would be Charlie, Charlie, Bill Burr, and myself. and Charlie had no jokes, right? And like you said, I was like, maybe, I don't know if you guys understand how it is to be selling out as an open micer. Crazy.

And he had to get his voice. And I was like, why did he never do this? Part of it was because he probably never wanted to be compared to his brother. Right. He never wanted to be able to like, that's his brother. And he had his own style or whatever.

So we did this fucking tour for like, like a year. And then I saw him start to grow. sometimes he took some hits, but he became Charlie Murphy. He became like, I'm not my brother, I'm a storyteller. He stuck to that shit. And one of the things that I would say

that I really appreciate about what the Chappelle show gave to Charlie Murphy, when Charlie Murphy passed away, Joe, nobody said Eddie Murphy's brother died. They said Charlie Murphy passed away. So that show didn't do, and when I tell you one of the most stand-up original guys

all of those stories like was it true it was he told that was just part of the story me Dave me Charlie and Bill built a relationship we did something that was spectacular then but

Bill Byrd used to fuck with us and I'm gonna tell you one of the things he would do we would be on the road and all we used to do was argue and fight and just fuck with each other and watch him Bill Burr he did some fucking I don't want to call this racist or whatever

but whatever It was very Bostonian, okay? I won't say, but when he did, I didn't know two years later, Bill Burr, when we meet up, he would buy a fucking, like, 12 piece of Popeye's chicken, right? And he knew me and Charlie would devour that chicken and we would be in a sleep coma, right, the next 15 minutes. And it was almost like he gave us sleeping pills and shit.

He would get his chicken, we'd be knocked out, and then he'd just go and just laugh at us and shit. But that time, that was such a great time because, You saw people's careers being born. Like Bill was already on the trajectory to be great. You know what I'm saying? But at that time, and this is when I say, the stories that you remember,

I'm pretty sure Bill still remembers. Like, this was the first time that he was making, like, regular good money every week. You know how it is for being a fucking headliner that's doing $800 a weekend. Or they give you a deal $2,000. And then you get a $500 bonus. when you sell or give away 300 tickets.

And you're not working every weekend. And you're not working every weekend. And then you got club owners. Like your bonus supposed to be at 300. And they'd be like, ah, couldn't give me that bonus. You was at 298. You know, I'd be like, motherfucker. And they lied to.

They lied to it. They lie about how many tickets you sold. They lied to it. And then they wonder why when guys become big and everything, they don't want to come back. Because I remember that. Oh, I remember that. There's a couple club owners that they can go eat shit.

And I tell people all the time, when everybody talk about this, about this, I was like, yo, try this. Try doing a fucking tour for a year and a half. And every night you had to come behind Bill Burr. I had no days off.

And I knew when I had a day off, I wasn't hitting on all cylinders, because that's when they used to have comment cards, right? The comment cards, like, I don't know why the white boy didn't go last, right? But that always, that

just, that's, that always kept me in shape. You know what I'm saying? It's like this. You don't got no time to flit around because Bill because Bill was one of those comics.

Bill was like, Bill would come, Bill did the mainstream shit and he was one of the only white dudes would do the fucking most grimyest spots ever. And I'm pretty sure he's always going to be a great comic

but I think that that helped build this character. Like, I think that was probably what made him be in a position when he go to Philly like, you know, fuck y'all.

I just did Donnell's fucking. club in Brooklyn. If I can handle that, I can handle that. Well, that rant in Philly was because he was doing the Opian Anthony tour. So when Opie and Anthony, their crowd were brutal. Their crowds were fucking brutal. They was killed Tonys before Till Tonys was. Way worse.

Yeah. Way worse. That they had sort of fed into that crowd. They fostered that crowd. They called them the pests. But then even going back to what I was saying, in this career, sometimes you have situations to have a defining moment. And that was one of those things.

I'm pretty sure everybody went on before Bill was throwing a towel in and he was like, fuck that. But Bill was built for him. What happened was, Dom Arara went on. And, you know, Dom Arara is a legend. How's he doing, man? He's hurting. Yeah, he's got, he's hurting. He's got whatever that neurological condition is, it's not good.

Right. I mean, I don't want to speak out of turn about his health, but it's not good. But Dom, they booed Dom. They were just rough. They wanted you to fail. And Bill went up and he just went into this crazy rant. You know what else who had a moment like that? Who?

Bernie Mac. Did he? Oh, on Def Jam. Yeah. I ain't afraid of you motherfuckers. You know how that was born? Why? First of, Martin Lawrence was the host.

And that night, everybody was taking licks, right? And there was another, it was a comment from D.C. named Butch Burns, right? He was very popular in D.C. Butch Burns went on stage and bombed so bad. Motherfuck was throwing shit. There was nothing that Martin could do. You know how sometimes you try and you're like just,

you're on your own. Right. It's like whoop-de-do. Right. So Butch Burns had bombed. The room is going crazy. Martin couldn't do anything. Next on deck was fucking Bernie Mac.

Bernie Mac saw Butch Burns on the way out. And he told him, he was like, listen, man, hold your head up, man. And he said, the sun might not shine on your day, but you'll have another opportunity to shine. And the reason, he didn't plan on, I ain't scared you, motherfuckers. And then Bernie had a situation to go through because Bernie was on Def Jam before.

He dressed in a suit and everything. He was looking like a Chicago player, but he didn't think that he connected with a young audience like that. So you even watch the way he was dressed from the previous show to the next one. Yeah. The next one, he had more of a hip outfit,

had graffiti on the jeans. He was dressed up for that part of it. No idea. I ain't scared you. motherfuckers. He did have the energy that he was going to do, the connection he was going to have with the DJ, right? But what made it so explosive

is that he said, fuck y'all. He said he did his joke and didn't, that's why you hear like, why was he saying, I ain't scared of you motherfuckers? It was because of the other shit. He said, I ain't scared of you motherfuckers. Kick it! Boom, boom, boom, but he said,

what did, and it was such the most simple stock jokes. Apparently was so powerful. It was so powerful. So the rhythm that he had and the fact that you knew that something was special to happen, that's why that fucking audience looked was so fucking charged up because he said, fuck y'all. I saw Bernie Live once at the Comedy Connection at Fanio Hall in Boston.

I remember that club. He was on fire. He was so powerful. First time I saw him at Comedy Connection of Greenbelt, I used to do this club, and it was a couple of people that just come through. And I was like, these motherfuckers are the next level. it was him another person that was like that was George Wallace Oh yeah You know another person that was like that

Rich Voss Oh yeah Yo George Wallace First off I do George Wallace on the next level I've never seen anybody go to the comedy club And the deal he had was 100% of the door Everything You just get your drinks

Your chicken wings 100% door They had to give it to him Wow And George Wallace He was old George Wallace always been an older dude right Somebody said You know his thing is your mama jokes

right? Somebody had did a mama joke and motherfucking Jordan Wallace ripped off about 30 mama jokes I felt so bad for him and then Rich Voss fucking fucked me up because I'd never seen a white comedian performer at this club. It was a black club.

Rich Voss came in it. He had a ponytail similar to Jamie's, right? He had Jerry curls. No, Rich Voss had a ponytail. It's the same one that Jamie was wearing when I, right? It was Rich Vosses, right? And I saw, Rich Falls going there and destroy this crowd.

I was like, this white dude don't know what's going on. And he fucking killed that shit. I had to, you know, when we talk about jokes stealing, right? I've never, I stole one joke in my life. And I apologized to Rich Falls. I was doing a show and none of my jokes worked. I tried, yo, I try everything. I try everything.

And I said to myself, what joke have you heard? I didn't mean to steal, right? I borrowed it, okay? I said, what one joke you know that fucking will kill this order? And Rich Voss used to have this joke. He said, you know what they say? Once you go black, you never go back. He said, yeah, because your father won't let you back in the house, right?

I stole that joke. I got him laughing. I got him back on track. And then I had the car. I said, man, I'm so sorry, but I said, it's going to get back to you, but I stole the joke. And he was like, no, no problem with it. Well, at least you admitted it.

Yeah, I did. All right. I think we accomplished a lot. This was therapy for me. I think it was good for you. Stay out of the comments. I'm going to stay out of the comments. Remember that podcast we did with Reza?

No, don't do that. They still talk shit to me. I grabbed you the end of the podcast and said, that was great. Don't read the comments. Exactly. That was a long time ago. I've been giving you that advice for a long time. You did tell me, don't.

But the part of that story people don't know is that I did my podcast early. I hadn't seen my son like two and a half weeks. I was in a row. And I came straight there, straight to the podcast to do it, right? And then I was like, you was like, yo, you want to hang out? This is what people don't know. This is the side you don't tell them. You invited me.

I did invite me. You did invite you. I thought it would be fun. You said the Riz is going to come, right? Well, we were having a good time. We did a podcast together. We were hanging out. And I said, are you going anywhere?

I'm doing a podcast with Rizzo next. You want to hop on? I thought it would be fun I thought it would be fun It was It was fun I would like to tell my side of the story We already did

We've talked this We've done this many times I think like every other podcast we do You tell your side of the story I'm never gonna say this again Joe I was gonna leave And I was like I was like man

Fuck O'Tang man I'm gonna say my son Right and I'm leaving out And as soon as I get ready Get my car Derrissa comes out And this motherfucker said

What's up? Ashley Larry And I said fuck my son. I'm fucking with the Wu-Tang, right? And I didn't, but it was a good time. It was fun. But what people don't understand is, before we did that, Rizzo said, yo, yo, yo, bong, bong, bong, I got this idea, right?

I said, what, he said, I'm going to do these jokes. They're going to be, he was trying to pitch jokes like he was on the jokes. And I was like, please don't do that. I was like, please don't do that. And we sat down and, of course, it went, I had a good time. But people's like, you just ruined it. You ruined it for the Rizelah. You just ruined it.

It was fun. It was fun. It was fun. And thanks for whenever I call you, let me, I can't even tell people. Other than, yes, I'm on tour. Go to Donair Rawlins.com, get tour dates. All right. And here's my shit.

A joke could be too soon, but it never could be too soon for a funny observation. And that's what you're going to get when you come to my show. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you, brother. I'm taking this gun with me.

James, stay sexy, son. Stay sexy. Bye, everybody. Thank you.