Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1874 - Dave Attell
Uploaded: 2022-09-27T00:00:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1874 - Dave Attell' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1874 - Dave Attell' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-09-27. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1874 - Dave Attell

Ladies and gentlemen, David Attal.
Hey Joe, thanks for having me on the show.
Good to see you, my brother.
I was telling your guys before you showed up, I was like, I'm hoping there's
other guests
besides me because I don't really think I'm interesting enough to hold the
whole show.
We can do it.
You think so?
Yes.
All right, I believe in you.
I have zero worries.
I'm glad you brought your straw.
Thank you.
And I'm also glad you brought your hobo sack.
I'll show everybody.
He's a comedy nomad.
That's how you travel.
That's all he brings.
Fresh underwear and socks.
That's it.
Let's go.
Good to be back in Texas.
Good to see you.
How was the Cap City?
Did you enjoy it?
It was awesome.
I mean, you and I back in the day played the old Cap City and that was
definitely an iconic
club.
And this is the, I guess you can say, the reimagining of it.
This is the Helium folks who do an amazing job.
Exactly.
The Helium folks are great.
They really are.
That fucking place in Philly is the shit.
The one in Portland is the shit.
All their clubs are fucking locked down.
They're all solid as a rock.
I totally agree with you.
And they put a lot of work into it.
And let's face it, this town, you know, people will come to a show.
They really are great comedy fans.
And I'm like so happy that Cap City is open too.
I want as many clubs open as possible.
I think it's sustainable.
I think there's a giant comedy audience here.
People really love it.
They love live performance overall.
Like there's a lot of live music that goes on here.
A lot of live comedy.
So we're happy.
Texas, I was going to say, like Texas has always been like, you know, on the
road, like Houston, Dallas.
Yeah, fun.
You know, San Antonio.
These were always like the hardcore, you know, comedy clubs.
The definitely where you like couldn't wait to get there kind of shows.
Yeah, the fun spots.
I used to love Addison.
That fucking improv was the shit.
Awesome.
It still is.
It still is the shit.
And my favorite, do you remember the, what was it called in Houston?
Laugh Stop.
The Laugh Stop.
That was the best.
That's where I learned to be a headliner.
That's what I always think.
That was the club where I really got it together.
And I was like, I can hold an hour, you know, right here, you know.
I did my first CD there.
Oh, you did?
Yes.
Well, there you go, man.
Yeah, that place is magic.
That place was magic.
I heard that that spot is still there, which I was like, Jesus Christ.
If that's the case, once we open up in Austin, I would love to open up a
mothership in Houston.
Oh, absolutely, man.
If that place is still there, holy shit, that place is amazing.
Yeah, it's always been like, you know, what I remember.
It was like me, Hedberg, and Patrice.
Like, we would all, like, rotate through there.
And I was always like, if you ran into him, like, oh, man, I was just at the
stop.
I was like, oh, it must have been awesome.
And, you know, you'd be jealous, you know.
Crazy-ass Mark Babbitt ran a hell of a club.
He really did.
He really did.
A visionary.
Oh, my God.
He loved comedy.
That's all it takes.
It takes a crazy person that loves comedy who's willing to, like, go all out.
When the owner of the club, you know, or the manager gets it, you know, and
then it's not just like a beer and beverage, you know.
Right.
This isn't a Dave & Buster's.
This is, like, a real place, like, where people do something special.
Yeah.
Then you can always tell.
It feels different, you know.
And he also had that long-running open mic they'd do in the front.
Mm-hmm.
You know, that front open mic was amazing.
You would get there at 8 o'clock, and the show would start, and then they'd
start an open mic around the same time.
And the open mic would go to fucking 2 o'clock in the morning.
Yeah.
Constantly rotating comics in there.
It was, like, it was an exciting thing.
And when that place went under, it fucking, you know, it took a lot of the
steam out of the scene.
For sure.
That's why your club, and you're real close now.
Real close.
Yeah.
Like, that's going to, honestly, that's a game changer, especially for this
town and for, you know, for all of us road people.
You know, I'm a club guy.
That's what I do.
I do clubs.
So I can't wait to see it.
I can't wait to get on that stage, if I may.
You 100% will be one of the first people on that stage.
I'm going to put up the bat signal.
Oh, that would be awesome.
I'll send you in.
It's exciting to be able to do.
It's exciting to be able to do it with no stress, too, to be able to do it the
right way.
Right.
And just have an amazing club set up for comics and the audience.
And just make it so that, like, we do our best in every corner.
Not fuck with people.
Appreciate them.
Treat them with respect.
Uh-oh.
Mike's falling apart.
I'm good.
Appreciate them.
Treat them with respect.
Like, encourage people to work and give open mic nights.
Yes.
Yeah.
Have things like that where you have plenty of time.
And kill Tony and that kind of shit.
You know, we really encourage the community.
Definitely.
You got to, you know, when the club also supports the locals, it's not just,
like, for the headliners.
That's when you know it's, like, a real deal situation.
Because, you know, these local scenes, like, I was just in Nashville.
That scene is popping.
Here, of course, it's out of control.
And, you know, it's getting the locals, you know, on stage in front of a big
crowd.
You know?
That's important.
Getting them on stage in front of a big crowd, giving them those spots, like,
the kill Tony spots.
And I've had a few of those guys, like, Hans Kim and William Montgomery and
David Lucas, who, you know, started in L.A., but he's out here now, too.
Right.
Doing those shows with us there, too.
And they're exploding.
And there's also a lot of room for other clubs, too.
There's a lot of room.
There's so many comics here, man.
Everybody who goes to these open mics out here, these guys who come, they go,
dude, these kids are good.
They're good, and they're writing, and they're energized.
It's, like, it's an exciting time.
And people are, like, really fired up about it.
And you see, like, a real clear path to being a professional, which was always
weird for us.
Right.
Like, you remember the early days of open mic?
There was no help.
None.
It was strange.
I don't know about you, like, your, I guess, origin story, but, like, I had a
job for, like, the first five or six years of comedy, and, like, I was such a
bad comic that, like, I would sometimes go, like, oh, God, I can't wait to get
back to my day job.
Oh, man, I can't wait to eat a muffin at my desk.
You know, it was, like, that kind of a thing.
So, yeah, I know what these people go through.
And even though there's, like, all these platforming and all that stuff, it'll
always be the same.
Like, you know, basically, you know, whatever, I guess you could say the
journey has many roads, many twists and turns.
So, you know.
The journey does, but at least this way, I think there's a map of the landscape
now.
For sure.
Whereas when we started, it was just, you were hoping that someone would take
you on the road, or you were hoping that you'd get a road gig.
You didn't know, like, how to, and you're doing, like, five, ten minute spots
in the beginning.
If you're lucky, you get ten minutes, right?
Yeah.
So then someone says, can you do 20?
And you're like, yes.
But you really can't.
Right, of course.
Yeah.
So it's like, you're opening in a bar with, you know, at least ten bullshit
minutes.
And when you're in a town, like, I, you know, started in New York, Long Island,
all that stuff, there was a lot of open mics.
Yeah.
So I was lucky where you can go to one place, you know, like, bomb, and then skid
mark your way over to the next one, and, you know, like, suffer there, and then
the next one.
And so you got, like, a whole, like, night of sadness, whereas some kids, it's
like, you know, especially West Coast, it's like, oh, I got a spot, you know,
one a week, and then they kind of live with that kind of, like, trauma for a
whole week.
It's better there now.
It's better there now for the L.A. guys.
You can actually develop in L.A. now.
But in the early 2000s and the 90s, it was real hard.
You couldn't get spots.
Everybody was getting spots, like TV stars and actors and stuff were getting
spots.
Yeah.
What year did you start?
In the late 80s, at the end of the comedy boom.
Me too.
I started in 88.
Yeah.
I was, like, 87, and I remember, like, comedy had just died, because I worked
the door at the old improv in New York.
That was, like, one of the original comedy clubs.
And honestly, it was weird to be a doorman to no audience.
You know, you basically hold the door open.
There's a guy out there.
Oh, no, he's just.
Was it a difference?
Was there a big drop off in New York?
I think that the comedy boom, like what you saw, like, in Boston, you know,
like, where every place was doing comedy shows.
Yeah.
And there were so many great locals, you know, just, like, hardcore killer acts
that, like, New York, that kind of didn't really, it dissipated and then it
kind of faded out.
And a lot of these clubs kind of went down.
And then, you know, we were just basically hanging on, you know, just learning
to do comedy, you know.
So it was, like, we didn't care.
You know, if it was a big room, we still would have suffered.
But still, like, the fact that there was, like, only 12 people in there, it
almost kind of fit where we were in comedy, you know.
I remember those days at Dangerfields.
Did you do Dangerfields?
Yes, yes, I did.
Those were the best.
Those shows where there was no one in the audience.
I used to call that club the humbler.
If you ever thought you were doing all right, you go in there and they take you
right back to reality.
Do you remember Bobby, the big Scottish guy that worked at Door?
Yes, I do.
Yeah, I do.
I saw Bobby pick a man up by his neck.
Bobby would make his own weights.
He would fill up, like, these, like, 10-gallon jugs with cement.
He would make his own weights.
Oh, cool.
Yeah, he did a lot of wild shit.
Like, Bobby was, like, this, like, tank of a man.
It was hilarious.
It was a small club with a lot of big people in it.
Oh, my God.
It was tiny.
It was like an elevator, basically.
It was an amazing place.
And then they had that big piano in there.
Yeah.
And I was like, you know, where am I supposed to, I don't play the piano.
What am I supposed to do, you know?
You had to have a piano if you had class back there.
Sure, just in case.
Class.
This is a fucking real club.
The improv used to have that problem.
I'm like, why do we have a piano up here?
Yeah.
I would always say that to Rita.
I'm like, Rita, look at me.
No one's playing a fucking piano.
Craig can bring his own piano.
He brings a piano sometimes.
But Robinson wants to go up.
What I always like with the improv piano is, like, you can tell who was raised
right,
who puts their drink on the piano.
Like, uh-oh.
You're going to leave a ring.
It's probably an expensive piano.
Yeah, I don't know who uses it, but they got it there.
And, uh, yeah, I like that club, too.
The Melrose Improv.
I always felt really at home there.
It's a great club.
You know?
That club's great.
That was my spot after I left the store in 2007.
I was at the improv all the time.
It was great.
That and the Ice House.
Yeah.
The Ice House I only played a couple times.
Oh, my God.
It's magic.
That room's magic.
The Ice House, one of the most underrated clubs in the country.
That's such a good room.
But the big room, when it's packed, oh, my God.
That room's amazing.
Do you, like, you know, you got a family and everything.
Do you still, like, having the time to go out every night and, like, you know,
work on an act?
Well, my kids are young, so they go to bed right over the time I'm leaving.
Yeah.
Which is nice.
So, like, I'm leaving, like, an hour before they go to bed.
Okay.
So, it's, there's a benefit in that.
And that was, at the store, it was even better.
Because at the s