Name: Joe Rogan Experience #2116 - Kevin James
Uploaded: 2024-03-08T18:00:33.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #2116 - Kevin James' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-03-08. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #2116 - Kevin James' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-03-08. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #2116 - Kevin James

Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan experience.
Showing my day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.
Let's go, shimmy.
Let's go, shimmy.
Shimmy, shimmy, shimmy.
Most people don't know about shimmy.
They don't know about your alter ego.
No.
Well, yeah, you were the one who brought it out of me.
You were, right?
Well, we would do shows.
We would do shows in New York, and you would go full shimmy.
I'd be on the side of the stage yelling out, shimmy.
Well, when we first started, by the way, we did the Joe Rogan experience 30
years ago.
Yeah.
Just hanging out.
Exactly.
Just playing pool.
I remember Sussman brought you into town.
You started at Knicks.
Was it Knicks?
I started at Stitches in Boston.
Stitches.
And then I was like two years in when I met you, and then I think we met at
Eastside,
which was awesome.
What a great club.
What a great club.
I was just there.
Shout out to Richie Manervini.
Yes, my man.
He was the greatest.
The greatest place to go.
I remember it would be a line around the block, two shows like on a Wednesday
night.
It was insane comedy then.
The golden age of comedy at the time, 1990?
Yes.
Oh, my God.
It was incredible back then.
91-ish?
I started at 89.
I think I met you in, what is it, 90?
91, maybe?
90, 91?
Somewhere around there.
Yeah, somewhere in there.
And I was, you know, I was following everybody.
That was my thing.
Like, I was being the stand-up comedian with the, you know, the jacket sleeves
pushed up
and the bolo tie.
You know what I'm talking about?
Yeah, I just-
I was just that straight thing.
And you came into town, and we were like, who is this dude?
Like, you just didn't care about anything.
And it was like, you've always remained the same.
And it was just incredible to watch.
We were like, whoa, he just doesn't care.
And that's what you were, you would work with me on that.
You would be like, brother, you can't be like you're handing out a platter of
food for these people.
Like, do what you want to do.
And I was like, I just got to get good.
Yeah, I got to wrap my head around that.
You're right.
You know, I would just try to make the audience so happy.
You're like, stop it.
Stop it.
And you got to let go.
And you'd get me going crazy.
I'd get all fired up there.
I'd be like yelling at people.
They'd be like, whoa.
It's like, why?
Maybe we bring it back a little bit.
But it was different, man.
It really was.
It was-
It really taught me to, most of all, to be comfortable in front of an audience
and not care about them.
You know, I literally battle with it to this day, that anxiety.
Oh, gosh.
I get nervous and I start overthinking things.
So, but it really helped me to say, like, just do what you do.
And it's almost like the, because the audience is like a dog, right?
They sense fear.
100%.
Yeah.
They're animals, just like we are.
We're all animals.
That's right.
And it's like, they know when, you know, and if you're comfortable, even if you're
faking it, they'll go with you.
You do a joke and you're confident.
They'll laugh just because they think it's funny.
You know, they look around and everybody's like, oh, it must be funny because
he's just got confidence by you.
And you had that confidence always, man.
You were always insanely intense and just never looked back.
And way to go, man.
Way to go for you, too.
You just always needed a hype man.
You just need someone to, like, let you go.
Like, give them the green light.
Give them the green light.
It's so funny.
You're right.
You're right.
Yeah.
You just needed a hype man.
You were the one who did it for me in Montreal, too.
Yeah.
Do you remember that?
Going to this place.
By the way, do you remember the beer we would drink?
There were two kinds of this.
I can't remember this Canadian beer.
I've been racking my brain to think about it.
It was like there was like a gold version of it and like an like an amber.
And it was just the greatest stuff.
And we get fired up up there.
And I loved it, man.
I loved going to that Montreal comedy festival.
Oh, it was the best.
Back when it was, I think it's gone under.
I think they did just announce they're going bankrupt.
Oh, really?
Yeah, unfortunately.
See, well, she'd tell people what it was.
So what it was during our time, when we were young, was the Montreal comedy
festival was where
young comedians would go up and you could kind of get a deal.
And that's where you got the deal to do the King Queens.
Well, I got the deal to do NBC.
Right.
And then, yeah, once that failed, that went into CBS.
And once you get in, the thing about, people should know, like in the 90s,
there was this
thing that was happening where everybody looked at a comedian like, this could
be the next
Roseanne.
This could be the next Tim Allen.
This could be the next Seinfeld.
So every time they looked at you, they're like, what do you got?
What do you got for me?
And the agents would try to put it together as a sitcom.
And they had this showcase called the Montreal Comedy Festival, the Just for
Laughs Comedy
Festival.
And it was the most insane thing.
You would go there and it would change your life.
You could have one set, one 15-minute set, and all of a sudden you got a half a
million
dollars.
A hundred percent.
You have one set that pops and people talking about, there's a buzz.
And it's like, you're in, you're set.
And they have bidding wars.
Yes.
So like CBS, Fox, they would all be throwing in.
And you know, there's guys that walked, do you remember Chicken?
Chicken was the crazy guy?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Chicken got the deal that killed the deal.
Yes.
Yes.
He got like 800,000 or something.
It was some crazy money or I don't know what it was.
Some nutty amount of money.
But he had no act, right?
It was after that.
They thought he was.
He just tricked everybody.
He did.
And I don't know how he did it.
And I wonder if he had a hype man, if he could have kept tricking people.
Yeah.
Like maybe he just went off the rails with anxiety when success starts.
Because that's one of the things that does happen.
And I've talked about it.
I think everybody admits it.
When it first starts happening, you think it's going to go away.
You get super anxiety ridden.
You feel like an imposter.
And you'd show up on the set and you're like, are they kicking me out?
Like, I'm still here?
My bud, I'm telling you, I still deal with that.
I'm not even kidding.
You obviously don't.
And you haven't.
I do, though.
Do you really?
Yeah, I do.
I just ignore it.
I tell it to shut the fuck up.
Well, that's what you got to do, I guess.
And that's what I don't do enough.
Because I start thinking.
And I get thinking.
And I start overthinking both sides.
I'm like, oh, gosh.
What if this happens?
Or this, that.
This means something.
To this day.
Yeah.
Like, if I'm doing, like, a theater and it's my people, you know, and I know
that they're
coming to pay to see me, I'm pretty confident.
I feel like I'm going to do well.
But if I do a club that they don't know me or something.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, I did a corporate gig, like, a month ago, like, in Miami.
And I was like, you know, I was like, oh, boy.
Because corporate gigs, you know, they can go either way.
And it's...
They can be horrible.
Well, I get there.
It's in Miami.
Really good looking people.
Everybody.
It's in a lobby of a hotel.
And I'm like, I thought this was in a theater.
I'm there.
And it's a good...
And now I'm getting worried.
I'm like, I got to do...
How much?
And they're like, you got to do an hour.
And then I find out nobody there wants to see me.
The woman who was the, like, CEO of this company was...
It was her birthday.
And she liked me.
So she brought me in for all her friends to see.
Dude, I'm sitting in the lobby.
And I'm finding all this information out as I'm sitting there.
And I started...
I'm not kidding.
I started...
I've never had a panic attack.
I start going, what do you mean?
Nobody else knows I'm here or this or that.
Or they don't know...
They go, no, no, no.
They don't know.
You know, this is a company.
And, you know, and I'm looking in the room.
It's in the lobby.
I can see through, like, a little glass window.
And they're drinking.
They're having...
They're talking at table.
We're set up for comedy, too.
Just, like, round tables, booths, like, not even facing you.
And I'm on...
I see a postage stamp of a stage that I got to stand on.
And I'm like, oh, my gosh.
So I start hyperventilating.
I really do.
I go, I wish I was going...
So I start going, I can't do this.
I'm talking to Skylar, my assistant buddy.
And, you know, he's helping me out here.
And I'm like, hey, just tell them.
We can't do it.
And he's like, what are you talking about?
I go, just tell them.
We're going to give them the money back.
We're just not going to do it.
We don't need to do this.
I don't want to do it.
This is not going to go well.
And I started really panicking.
And then they started going up.
She's up on stage now introducing me.
And I go, oh, my gosh, we're going.
Oh, my gosh.
So I start freaking out.
Heart is going.
Exactly.
I've been doing comedy for 30 years.
I've been doing stand-up.
I go, I don't need this.
I'm ready to call sussy and go, I don't want to do this anymore.
I don't want to do it.
I get up there and go, I go, just get in with that first joke.
If you do, you settle it.
Because if you don't, you know if they don't buy you on that first joke, you're
gone.
You're gone.
You're gone for an hour.
For an hour, you're gone.
Oh, gosh.
And they're not even listening.
And they're loud when they bring me up.
And when I came up, it wasn't even like they all turned and went nuts.
But I got them.
I don't know what I said.
I just said one joke about the lady thanking me, you know, thanking for
bringing me up.
And I just won them over in one little sweet way.
And they turned and they clapped and they laughed at one thing.
And then I went into another joke very gingerly, just kind of going this, that.
And they laughed at that.
And I go, okay.
I just settled in.
I go, I got them.
And they were great.
They were great.
They were really great.
And I was sweating the whole time.
I really feeling the sweat.
You know what I'm saying?
It was like, it was, it was, it was rough.
But, uh, yeah.
That's so nerve wracking.
I'm glad it worked out great.
I hate it.
But I just, I ran into Sandler when I missed you at the airport.
I ran into Sandler.
He was just telling me about the fucking worst corporate gig that he just had
to do.
Yeah.
I called him about, he had the same thing.
He had the same thing.
So it's nice to see somebody like that has it too.
Yeah.
A guy like him can still eat dick.
I talked to Billy Joel and he says he, literally,
he was like, I've gone through those.
I'm like, you, but when you're playing music, it's different, man.
Yeah, but they'll throw that Saudi money at him.
Yeah.
He threw crazy money at him.
And he did a corporate gig or whatever it was.
And he says, they weren't even listening.
They turned away.
And they, and it's like, just you and the band.
And you just go, let's go, boys.
You know, and they play.
Dana White had a 40th birthday party and Stone Temple Pilots played.
And it was insane.
These dudes played like it was a packed arena.
Where?
It was at a fucking conference room in a hotel somewhere.
They didn't care.
They didn't give a fuck.
They had a beautiful stage set up.
The stage was set up nice.
But like, you know, all of a sudden they were like, hey, everybody, Stone
Temple Pilots.
And then they fucking, I am, I am, I am, I am.
They just win it.
Yeah.
I was so impressed by his ability to perform.
I mean, there's like, it took a while for people to even filter to the dance
floor in front of them and watch the show.
This dude did it like there was 50,000 people out there.
It was incredible.
I mean, he didn't back off at all.
He, who cares less, has more power.
It's literally like, that's it.
It's, I'm going around with a tree.
Like, you guys think this is funny?
He's like, I don't care.
He didn't give a fuck.
A