Name: Joe Rogan Experience #2359 - Mike Maxwell
Uploaded: 2025-08-01T17:00:02.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #2359 - Mike Maxwell' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-08-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #2359 - Mike Maxwell' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-08-01. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #2359 - Mike Maxwell

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
Hey, Mike Maxwell.
What's happening, Joe Rogan?
My man, good to see you.
It's good to be here.
For anybody who doesn't know, Mike Maxwell is an amazing artist and did not
just that
painting with Quentin Tarantino in front of it, which is pretty fucking cool,
but also
the JRE logo.
Yeah, a minute ago.
Yeah, it's so funny.
How many years ago was that?
Like 15 fucking years ago?
Yeah, it has to be.
I think you were like on episode 10, maybe.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
And super fucking random, too.
Like, I get the question all the time, like, how the fuck did you do that?
You know?
And for me, like, my whole, like, art experience has just been like, make the
work and whatever
the fuck happens afterwards is just all bonus, you know?
Well, if the work is great, that works.
You know, it's like you kind of have to be discovered.
Someone has to find you.
But yeah, ultimately, it's about talent.
Yeah.
And, you know, hard work, too.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, because that talent really doesn't come.
Like, artists so often are like, people are like, ah, I wish I could draw.
Like, you're so lucky.
Like, God-given talent.
I'm like, bitch, I had to fucking, I work every day and have been grinding at
this for
25, 26 years.
There's no God-given talent with art.
There's some people have an openness or maybe an ability to see things
differently than others.
But when it comes to the actual technique and developing that fine hand-eye
coordination and
the ability to draw or paint exactly what you're looking for, God, that's work.
That's work.
Yeah.
And nothing came easy.
Like, I feel like there's some artists and, like, some creative people who,
they have
some, like, inert talent that's in there somewhere.
Or it's like, we have the right brain chemistry to, like, get started.
But, like, I'm still improving.
25, 26 years in, I'm still recognizing improvements.
Yeah.
I thought that particular one that we just posted a picture of, that was, like,
one of your best
ones.
Yeah.
That is fucking amazing.
Well, I told you, like, I probably put more time and effort into that piece
than anything
I'd made previously.
Look at that thing.
I mean, that is so sick.
That is so sick.
And it's like, that is this show.
Yeah, right?
And what's funny, like, that piece was really, like, all the components were
just separate drawings
that I had been, like, compiling.
Oh, wow.
And then it, like, eventually just kind of formed itself.
Like, sometimes I just let the work do what it needs to do.
Sometimes it's almost like I feel disconnected from it.
Yeah.
And I had, like, there gets to a point after, like, all the, like, prep work
where it's,
like, the painting starts to paint itself.
Right.
Like, it tells me what it wants.
Yeah.
It's very strange.
Like, there'll be a moment where it's, like, I could feel something's not right.
And then, like, I can't consciously think of, okay, well, I need to do A, B,
and C.
But it's kind of like I sit and wait and something tells me.
Right.
It's so crazy that you say it that way because so many people, including
authors in particular,
they talk about the exact same kind of process.
It's like something just comes to you.
Yeah.
And that's, I've, I've done a little bit of writing and I've, I've recognized
that in writing
too, where, like, I'm telling a story and then all of a sudden it's, like, the
characters
come to life.
Yeah.
And they start to dictate what's actually going to happen.
Yeah.
It's like, it writes itself eventually.
But you have to do all that beginning work, like, the prep work.
Like, you have to get the idea going and then once you're a certain, like, path
in, like,
it starts to, it starts to communicate with you.
I always wondered why that's, maybe that's why Stephen King wrote his best work
when he
was coked up and drunk.
Because he was out of his head.
Yeah.
He could get away from his own head.
Yeah.
I know that sounds ridiculous, especially to sober people that don't, you know
what I
mean, like, they don't want to admit that there's, there's, that's, there's a
net positive
effect of some people with drugs and writing.
Hunter S. Thompson is a giant example.
Yeah.
He's one of my favorite authors and it's a giant example.
The guy was an inveterate drug user.
Yeah.
He was a fucking complete maniac.
He was always drunk and he wrote some shit that just to this day cuts to the
core of our
society.
Yeah.
Like, he was brilliant.
He's one of my all-time heroes.
Like, I started reading him when I was in high school and I've read all, almost
everything,
I think.
Um, I even liked the Hey Rube stuff.
Yeah.
Like, a lot of people were like, uh, like he was in his decline, but I remember
when that
was coming at like pretty early internet, right?
Like no social media, but those little articles would pop up and I, I still
enjoy it.
Like, I, I love everything that, that he made.
Well, he, at the end was gone.
He was really gone.
And McCumber, so David McCumber, who is his editor, who also co-wrote a book
with my friend
Tony Anagoni, that's one of the great pool books.
It's called Playing Off the Rail.
It's a really, for anybody who's a fan of pool, the game, it's an amazing book
about a guy
whose name's Tony Anagoni, who was a world-class player who went on the road
with a journalist
and just gambled across the country.
Yeah.
And did it, did it like a real pool hustler would in the, the most dangerous,
dingiest places
playing against high level guys for, you know, $10,000 sets and 24 hour joints
in New York
City.
It's an amazing book.
Well, McCumber was Hunter's editor too, at one point in time.
And McCumber got him towards the end.
Like there's video of, see if you can find video of Hunter Thompson and David
McCumber having
a conversation.
Because Hunter was just-
He must have been a fucking nightmare.
Nightmare.
Yeah.
Never, never got his stuff in on time.
He famously would destroy the fax machine because he was supposed to fax his
pages to Rolling
Stone magazine.
I love that video when he's in the Rolling Stones office and Jan Wenner is like,
like, looks
like the whole building's going to fucking burn down.
Just panic.
I mean, just try to imagine controlling a guy like that.
You can't, he can't control himself.
But out of that, sometimes something that no one else is capable of writing
comes through.
Yeah.
And it was much less so at the end.
It got away from him at the end, which it's going to do that.
Cocaine and alcohol, you're not going to, it's unsustainable.
At that level for that long?
It's unsustainable.
Everybody I know that has done a lot of coke, at the end, they're a mess.
It's neurological conditions, all sorts of weird shit happens to them.
Yeah, you can't fry your brain for that long.
You're frying.
And these guys are frying.
Well, it's like, it's the deficiency afterwards, right?
So you've used up all the available dopamine that you have in your brain.
Exactly.
And it's just like, well, fuck it.
I had a friend who was a crack addict who was also friends with my friend who
ran a pool hall,
but also was involved in recovery and was involved in helping people with
recovery.
So he was-
After the fact?
Well, he was helping people that were getting sober.
And he wasn't trying to help my friend Johnny.
My friend Johnny didn't want to help.
He was like, fuck your help.
Right.
I'm smoking crack.
Yeah.
And he was explaining to me the whole dopamine thing.
The dopamine and serotonin receptors just get cooked.
Yeah.
And then you're so depressed that you need it just to feel normal.
Yeah.
You're always at a below baseline.
Right.
You know, I kind of feel like I fall into that little category a little bit to
where it's
like, I'm just below baseline normal.
And like a couple, like, I don't get super excited for shit, but it'll be like
something
that I'm looking forward to will kind of just get me to baseline, like right
around normal.
And I sometimes wonder, like, I used to do a lot of LSD when I was a teenager.
And I wondered, like-
Define a lot.
I mean, we had one summer that me and my boys, it was like every two days.
Jeez.
Like, you know, twice a week.
How old are you?
16.
Oy.
Yeah.
But also, you know, at the same time, maybe that has had some power in the sort
of creative
aspect too.
Right.
Right.
Even if it's just like looking at the world differently, which is just so
common with psychedelics.
Right.
Right.
It just kind of gives you some perspective that's so far removed from our
normal day-to-day reality.
Right.
Right.
So it's like, I think for me, it's like, what more am I not seeing?
You know, like, what am I missing in my normal reality that maybe exists?
I, it could be total bullshit.
Like, I don't know.
It might not have done anything for my creativity, but, you know, I-
It seems to have a profound effect on a lot of people that have experiences and
just, they'll
talk about, like, this one, like, didn't Steve Jobs talk about it?
One LSD experience and just kind of shifted the way he thought about things.
Oh, here it is.
With those tiny shorts on.
Fucking great.
This is a document.
The crazy...
Walking around with a gun.
Can't even understand them.
People screw in the after the golf course at night.
Blumber thieves.
Blumber thieves.
One of these things in the stomach.
Turn the person around.
What can I do?
I was behind the fence.
No, I understand.
I couldn't go.
I, I, I, I, I, I made you go to the cab.
We've got to.
We've got to get seriously busy here.
Okay.
If he was calling me everything Siebel's in our name, you dirty suck.
You dirty, stupid bastard.
I've had a whole lot of this.
You play me an asshole.
Yeah, well.
Well, we were, uh, we were an hour away from, uh, for an edition.
Well.
Not to mention the first edition.
I don't, uh, I guess, uh, what do I say?
Well, fuck this.
We'll probably do better.
Look at the computer.
Look at the computer.
I wonder what year this was.
Uh, 80, this came out in 88, so probably like 87.
When did people first start having computers?
When did you have your first computer, Jamie?
You were, you're younger than me.
Mine was later than that, though.
I had, like, Windows, I think, was our first one.
In what year?
Like, 95?
No.
We had whatever Windows was before that.
3.8 or whatever it was?
3.1.
What was, is that what it was?
When Windows 95 came out, that's, it was a big day.
It was a big day.
Oh, yeah.
I remember.
I could do stuff.
CD-ROMs.
I got an Apple computer from CompUSA in 1994.
Yeah, I think I was right around, like, 97.
Big-ass fucking thing, too.
But my friend Robbie knew what to buy.
My friend Robbie, either he worked in computers or his brother worked in
computers.
So he took me to CompUSA.
I had no idea.
I'm like, what is this?
My mom, she worked in a computer lab at the community college in San Diego.
And she was, like, one of the first to start using Apple products.
Like, everything was PC in the spot.
And she knew, like, something was, like, getting ready to pop off.
And she was, like, she had the first iPhone.
Like, early, like, those fucking apples that, you know, it looked like a TV
from the 80s.
Yeah.
Just weighed 600 pounds.
Yeah.
And actually, like, got into graphic design early.
And that's kind of how I started doing some, because I made art my whole life.
But started doing some design, like, learning how to actually use the fucking
computer.
And now, like, I learned.
What kind of programs were available back then?
Photoshop and Illustrator were out.
But it was, like, one and two.
Wow.
Yeah.
And she was in there and taught me how to do it.
And then, like, I still, like, do graphic design.
But it's, like, it's from, like, I still use the techniques from, like, 1999.
Well, it kind of shows you that there's a lot of, like, untapped comedic talent
in the tech industry.
Because memes were one of the first forms of new comedy that hit the Internet.
And it had to be by someone who knew how to work the 