Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1967 - Mike Vecchione
Uploaded: 2023-04-06T00:00:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1967 - Mike Vecchione' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-06. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1967 - Mike Vecchione' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-06. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1967 - Mike Vecchione

Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.
We're up.
What's up?
How are you, man?
Pleasure to meet you.
Thanks for having me on, Joe.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
Hey, my pleasure.
You're a funny motherfucker, man.
I enjoy your shit.
Thank you, man.
How long are you doing it?
23.
Nice.
Started in October of 2000, did about three and a half years in Philly with, um,
um,
DeRosa, Big J, those guys, and then moved to New York at the end of, uh, 2003.
Nice.
Yeah.
I was a teacher.
I got a master's in special education.
I was working with, uh, kids who had behavioral problems for about eight years.
You seem like a guy who would work with kids with behavioral problems.
You're very calm.
Yeah.
Very calming.
Very calming.
But, uh, it was very, very challenging.
Very challenging.
I could imagine, man.
Because the kids would, uh, flip, you know, a lot.
Every day at work was something different, you know?
Oh, man.
I worked in a behavioral school for a while and then, uh, and then went back at
night
and got my master's because I figured if I'm going to do this, I might as well
teach and
then, uh, taught in a classroom in three different public school systems.
When did you decide to leave to go comedy full time?
Um, I did about, I started going to open mics.
I was in a relationship and, uh, I thought we were going to get married and it
broke up.
I think a lot of comics have this story, you know, where it's a, it's like a
heartbreak
situation and then I was just on my own kind of out there finishing up my
master's.
So I started just going to open mics at the Laugh House, which is not there
anymore.
It's a, um, comedy club on South Street.
And I just started going every Wednesday and then I started going on Thursdays
and a little
bit more.
And then I wasn't funny at first, you know, at bomb, I would do okay, bomb, do
okay, bomb.
But I was like, you know, I'm probably not going to be able to do this, but it's
going
to help me public speaking wise.
It's going to help me somewhere down the line.
You know, I got a good vibe for it.
So I was like, let me just keep doing it.
And at that point, you know, I was, uh, you know, alone and I was going through
a tough
time.
So I was like, I kind of don't care if I fail.
I kind of just don't care.
I'm going to just fail and just figure it out and just keep coming at it.
And, uh, because I'm a sensitive guy, so it's like, uh, you know, failure has
been tough
to take.
So, uh, I just, just kept doing it.
I just kind of, it kind of dropped off because I was going through a tough time.
I didn't care about failure.
So I just kept doing it and doing it and doing it.
And then at the end of 2003, I was working a job I didn't, didn't want to do
anymore.
And I just decided to move to New York.
And that's when it really, like, I'm a really, I don't know how much time you
spend.
New York, I know you're a Boston guy, but, um, I'm a product of the New York
city comedy
clubs really is what I like to say.
Just hopping, going from just hopping.
I mean, it's not so much like that anymore, but it used to be, uh, I don't know
how much
time you spent there, but it was like, you would just run from club to club to
club to
club to make money.
Yeah.
And that's how I would do it, you know?
And, uh, the big club was a comedy seller still is, but it's like, uh, the
Boston comedy
club.
I would, I started in New York the last days of the Boston comedy club with
Nate and
Dustin Schaaf and a lot of these guys.
So I, uh, I started there and then what we do is I'd go to an open mic first to
make sure
you got stage time.
And then I would go to the Boston and the Boston different comics would run the
weeknights.
So you would go and hang out and see if you could get on.
So I, and then I would do that.
And then at the end of the night, you would go to the cellar and just hang out
and just
hanging out was a big thing back then because you just get your face around,
get people to
know who you are.
And every club had their different, every, uh, city has their different scene.
And in New York, we'd end up at the cellar with, um, Patrice, Keith Robinson,
Jim Norton,
those guys, and you'd hang out.
And, uh, they would just break balls at the table, different time, you know,
everybody would
break balls and then people would get to know you slowly.
Isn't it crazy you say 2003 is a different time?
Different time.
You're talking like you're talking about the twenties.
Yeah, but it was a very different, it was a very different landscape back then.
Yeah.
And that's what you had to do.
You had to hang and get your face around.
So people would, oh, you know, maybe Mike would be good to open or maybe so-and-so
would
be good to open for you on the road, you know, and that's how you would get
work.
Yeah.
I moved to New York in 91, I think, 91 or 92, somewhere around there.
And, um, I did the clubs, I did Boston, but mostly I did the road because like
I lived
in New Rochelle.
I couldn't afford to live in Manhattan because I couldn't afford a parking spot
and I did
road gigs so much.
I had a car and, uh, my thought was like, I could do these little clubs, but I
don't
make any money.
Or I could do like Long Island and Connecticut and Jersey and I could make, you
know, 150
bucks, 200 bucks for a show and I'd have money and I'd be able to do long sets.
And I was always a big fan of Hicks and I knew that Hicks, he did mostly the
road and
he did like these real shitholes.
Yeah.
As good as he was, I was like, I always thought that like shitholes made shitty
comics, but
Hicks kind of changed my mind about that.
Like you could do great comedy in front of shitty rooms.
Right.
And win them over.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really something.
That's really what it is.
Cause if you let the room change you, you can become a shitty comic that way.
But if you go now, I'm going to flip them, but on my terms, that's a lost art
also, because
if you're big, you know, you have your own fans and stuff that doesn't come
into play.
But if you're good and you're on the road, you don't have your own fans.
It's like, you have to like, keep just working them, working them, working them.
I was at the Atlanta punchline and this happened where it was a, the crowd, you
know,
they didn't know me and there was a drunk woman.
It's my birthday.
It's my birthday.
Like making it about her and like younger in comedy, I would have just bailed
and just
tried to score off of her and win and just, you know, do a penalty kill, you
know, just,
just play the set out that way and walk away with the victory.
But I decided, you know, you know what?
Let me neutralize her.
I don't want to make it about her.
She's being selfish, you know, stay in the pocket.
Cause, and I hadn't won the other people over yet.
They were still on the fence about this guy.
So it's like, just keep, just keep coming, just keep coming.
And then working them and bringing them to you and bringing them to you and
neutralize
her.
Cause she's a distraction and just keep bringing them, bringing them, bringing
them.
And at the end, like, uh, it was good.
It was a good set, but I got off stage.
I was like, oh my God, that was so much work and nobody's going to know about
it.
No, one's going to know what happened here.
And I walked to the bar and there's a couple of comics at the bar.
And one guy looks at me and goes, I saw what happened.
He goes, I saw what you did.
That was great.
That was masterful.
I go, thank, at least one witness.
I got one witness who saw what it was.
Who knows like what it is and how hard it is to do.
It's my birthday.
Oh God.
There's so many of them out there.
It's really something you just go to, just go to karaoke.
What are you doing?
Just go to karaoke.
Some lady was fucking up Ron White's set the other night in our club.
She yelled out, can I get a picture of you?
She kept saying that in the middle of his fucking bits.
Like he'd be in the middle of the set up.
You hear, can I get a picture of you?
Oh, it's the worst.
And it's really something, because the crowd's not on your side and you come
too hard at her.
You know what I mean?
Then they're going to be like, whoa, what is this guy?
This guy's angry now.
It's like, they kind of don't get the dynamic of what's happening.
But if you just stay in there like, miss, I love you.
I don't want you to get kicked out.
You know?
Just like, you know, and eventually she just went to the bathroom anyway and
just whatever.
Did coke.
Something.
I think she was on it before.
Maybe did more coke.
Yeah.
It's funny how you remember those sets like that.
Like one set that you feel like, that was a breakthrough moment.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
But it's like, the fact that it's like, oh, I know it.
I know it.
And I doubt anybody else is going to know it, but whatever.
I know it.
Do you ever stop and think like, what if you didn't break up with that girl?
Like, what if you were still in that relationship and you'd never pursued
comedy?
Yeah.
All the time.
Fuck.
All the time.
Oh my God.
And I just, but you know what?
I could have, I would have been married.
I would have had kids, you know, whatever.
And I just would have lived that life.
It was a fork in the road.
You know what I mean?
It was really sad.
Because I was teaching at times, working at a behavioral school and I was with
her and
I was like, oh, this is probably how this is going to play out.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't have that in the, the thing in me to go out and get spots.
Because going out and get spot, getting spots is like, you have to go out and
you have to
hustle.
Yeah.
I was already working hard and my job and you're trying to get my master's.
I was on a different path.
So I didn't have that extra in me to go and try to get, you know, spots at
clubs and
stuff.
So when you say that, like you, when, when, in, at that moment, did you kind of
were,
you weren't in a good place, right?
She broke up with me and I was really, really, uh, we were, we dated in college
and then
we, uh, she's from Philadelphia.
So I had any, no ties to Philadelphia.
So I moved to Philadelphia to try to find a job, be with her.
She was in law school.
And, um, so yeah, that's, that's what it was.
I hope she watches you on YouTube now.
I mean, I think she's got a good life.
She had a good, she was a good person.
She had her head on her shoulders and she was a good.
It's okay.
Yeah, it hurt though, man.
It hurt.
It's heartbreak like that that causes you to go, oh yeah, I got a, it, it makes
you raw.
You know, it makes you raw and it makes you go like, I'm going to go out and
take some
chances and do what I really want to do.
Figure my life out.
You know what I mean?
Now, if it would have been a thing where I would have been successful right
away, then
it would have been, oh my God.
Yeah, it's different, but it's been 20.
I've had wins along the way.
This is a big win by the way, but it's like wins along the way.
It's like that gradual, I thought I'd moved to New York and it's like, I'll be
a star
or I'll just get a job.
I didn't realize that it was going to be this incremental thing where it's like,
get a tonight
show.
Yeah.
That's good.
Last Comic Standing.
That's good.
NBC time.
You know, it's like this happens, Montreal Comedy Festival.
It's like gradual throughout the years.
Yeah.
So that becomes your life.
You know what I mean?
I describe it to people like making a mountain, one layer of paint at a time.
Yeah.
That's what it's like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That really is.
Build it, build it, build it out.
Yeah.
It's so slow.
But you don't think that.
I didn't think that at the beginning.
I thought, oh, I'll just go and I'll win or I'll fail.
Either way, it's like, even if I fail, I'm in New York, I'll figure it out in
New York,
you know?
But yeah, I didn't see this.
I didn't see that incremental, the incremental steps that it takes.
And, you know, as a comic after that, like any girl I'd have, so protective, so
protective.
And I think a lot of comics are