Name: Todd White on Finding Jiu Jitsu in 1993
Uploaded: 2020-12-26T19:48:51.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Todd White on Finding Jiu Jitsu in 1993' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Todd White on Finding Jiu Jitsu in 1993' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-26. Transcript available.

the Joe Rogan experience I was working at Warner Brothers Tiny Toon Adventures
and I was a I was a I was a PA production assistant at that time was the
first job I ever had in LA and that guy says hey we're gonna have a party
tonight we're gonna watch these fights they're like cockfights come on over
let's watch him and I went over to his house and I was literally hypnotized
watching Hoist Gracie do what he did I couldn't believe it everybody else was
talking 93 the first day the very first the first UFC it was the first one
wow so you you watched the first one live yeah I saw it at a party that I was
not
supposed to be at and nobody else was paying attention to this it was just on
it was like two other guys watching it and uh and I'm watching this going I
gotta
do that like it was speaking to me in a way I've never you know like art speaks
to
me and I was watching it and and the next day I find Torrance Gracie Academy
because they kept saying Torrance Gracie and I knew where Torrance was so I I I
was
living in the studio city in the valley I drove I had a Honda Prelude I drove
all
the way on the 405 the worst freeway in the world and it took me about three
hours to
get down there on a Saturday morning and I walked into that place and it was
they
were done but I could smell all that sweat and humidity and nastiness and I was
like oh god this is great and I walked in and and they were very nice to me but
there was like these dudes and they look so intimidating and they were just
ripped up and clawed up and dripping wet and this wasn't the pretty days where
everybody has rash guards and designer geese this is like Krugans geese yep
they
were yellowed and nasty smelling and and no there was no there was chest hair
in
your mouth I remember Krugans and uh and and they came walking out and I was
just
like I felt man I felt like a little bitch I was just looking at him going like
I want
to be you and he goes uh where are you from you know and I go oh the valley and
the valley
this is too far my friend and he goes my cousin John Chuck is in the valley the
machados go there and uh
I was kind of like struck and all by everything right so I thought okay I'll go
to
the valley you know and there was no internet you understand there's no
internet you can't
just google so I got the Thomas guide out and I started looking around and and
I
would ask people and and so nobody knew the answer to this because remember as
you know in the early days Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was like oh you do that karate
stuff yeah and so I uh I got on my mountain bike I was a heavy mountain biker
then and I got on my bike and I was in Studio City and I decided to ride Ventura
Boulevard and I'm gonna look at every shop on Ventura Boulevard and I was
driving I got all the way down to Encino and uh and just and I see this Jiu Jitsu
right and I go oh that's it I walk in and this little kind of chubby round guy
comes walking up and is tucked into his gi and he goes uh how can I help you
and I
go I'm looking to do uh I'm looking to do that ground fighting stuff and he
goes
yeah we do that here and I go okay you know sign up and so I signed up and I'm
there a week and I'm there every day and not once are we on the ground we're
doing this stand-up small circle stuff and like and I'm looking at my
classmates and they're all like horribly out of shape and like they can barely
move and I'm thinking god this isn't what I saw what was the place it was like
Mushinryu Jiu Jitsu right but I was so out of my head trying to find it and so
I'm there a week and he's like hey congratulations you get a belt and I'm
like I hardly know anything and so he gives me this belt and I'm working out
this one guy and he says hey I think what you want is the Machados and I was
like where am I he goes this isn't it dude I'm like in the wrong movie and so I
go
okay uh he goes that's down the road dude like four stores four shops four
shops
short right so I literally at class I'm like currying up and I'm like I gotta
go
and I walked down there and I see them and it was this is on Ventura Boulevard
he
wasn't at his place in in Tarzana yet he was getting ready to move that week
and I
walk in and it was a place as big as this studio I'm not kidding and he goes
you
know John Jack spoke very poorly English back then and he was like oh hello and
I'm
like uh sign I sign up now you know and so I signed up and I started going to
him
but I had made like two friends say when in LA I didn't have any friends I was
there to work and
become my goal and so uh I was still talking to these guys and still going to
the other place
and the time worked out where he was early and I would leave and go next door
to John Jack
right so I was there about another week and we're just doing drills at John
Jack we're doing armbar
drills over and over again from our back from open guard drills and I would go
home and I would draw
it in my book I had a sketchbook of everything so everything we learned I would
draw it and I would
you know I was an animator for a long time so I could animate the movements and
I could see
in rolling where we would end up so if we start here and I did this this and
this I knew we would
end up over here in this position in my mind it was easy because I had to
animate it so I would see
rolling like cartoons and they would just kind of roll into it and so it came
very I wasn't a wrestler
but it came pretty natural to me to the movements right and so um so a week
later the guy at the
Mushinryu Jiu Jitsu place was telling me oh you got to do this because and I go
but if you did that
you'd get stuck in an armbar because he's having me like choke like reach up
and he goes no you can't
get an armbar from there and I go I think I think you can he's like you're not
going to do it and so
I go well watch and he got in my guard and he like he did his little chest slap
thing you know
those little like and and he like stuck his arm out when's the little chest
yeah you know how that
they like get ready to fight and they're like you know they do their poses and
he did that in my guard
and it was weird and everybody's watching right and they're standing there
watching the instructor
tell me I didn't know what I was doing and he did that and he stuck his arm out
and I grabbed
his arm and I pulled it in and I threw my legs over his face and I armbarred
him and he got real pissed
off and he goes he got up and he was really perturbed and he goes that wouldn't
work in real
time that only worked because I was letting you get there and I and I was
scared and I go I think
it would work man I think it would work and remember I had two friends now
right my two guy friends
right and they were going and I hear one of them go oh no it worked and I'm
looking around him and he's
getting kind of pissed man he's a short guy but he's really stock and he goes
uh he goes look I'm
tired of hearing about this Brazilian jiu-jitsu so I tell you what you use your
jiu-jitsu which by
the way I had had like two weeks of training now granted I was there every day
with John Jack like
doing drills so you know if you got one movement that you do a hundred times
you're gonna have an
inkling of how to do it what year is this bro so you're talking about 94 right
after the first UFC
maybe like 93 two months after the first UFC also the 93 yeah 93 and so ahead
of the curve so I'm
sitting there and I go okay uh I think uh I think it'll work dude now I don't
know anything about
standing right right so he gets up and he goes okay I'm gonna attack you and
you attack me and I'm like
I don't know how to attack you so he goes he goes he goes he goes ready and
like all of a sudden I'm in
a video game I'm standing there so what do I do I copy what I saw always Gracie
do I stick my arms up
like the karate kid and I stick my foot in front and he fucking starts like
like coming at me with his
elbows and swinging and he looks like a little machine and I just took my foot
and kicked him in
the front leg his leg goes down he lands on me we fall under the guard he
starts hitting me with his
elbow on the top of the head right like I grabbed him I clenched him I squeezed
him really tight mostly
so I didn't get punched in the face because I was afraid and and I took my head
in his chest
and he's hitting me on the top of the head and I'm like and that heat comes up
your back from your
butthole to your neck and you go you motherfucker you're hitting me now and I
go okay all right all
right now we're in a new league now you're not my friend now you're fighting me
and I literally just
kind of monkey shimmied up his high guard and I just threw him in an arm bar
and I cranked as hard
as I could on that arm and he screams okay wow and I get up right and I'm like
you got that blood rush
I'm like hair messed up I'm like you motherfucker okay and I I and I grab my
bag I grab my bag
my little fucking goofy bag I grab it and I walk out right I'm like I don't
know what to do I'm like
flustered I walk out and the two dudes come running out after me they're like
bro bro I'm coming with you
where you going where's that school at and they came and they fucking trained
all the way to purple
belt both those guys who are the guys it was Jim Lahan the wood carpenter guy
and a guy named Seth
I don't even remember his last name wow they both trained all the way through
purple before they kind
of faded away and uh and man you fade away when you're at purple that's such a
shame you're so close
as an instructor now it crushes me when I give a blue belt to someone and then
I see them fade
and I'm thinking god dude you got past the hardest part you're a color yeah the
greatest belt you can
get is blue yeah I say that it's to this day and I'm fourth black blue because
you're a color you're
not the white anymore you're in the club you're in dude the day John Jock gave
me a blue belt was
like one of the greatest days of my life the day John Jock gave me my purple
belt I was like oh my god I'm
close from so close to brown purple is a danger purple belts tap people so I
remember seeing a
lot of purple belts that could tap brown belts oh yeah purple belts that were
dangerous they had like
one really good move oh yeah catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan experience for
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