Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1082 - Greg Fitzsimmons
Uploaded: 2018-02-22T00:31:25.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1082 - Greg Fitzsimmons' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-02-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1082 - Greg Fitzsimmons' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-02-22. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1082 - Greg Fitzsimmons

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Another episode of the Richard Jenny Fan Club.
He's a guy that I've been telling forever is probably the most underrated stand-up
in the history of stand-up.
I think he's like one of the all-time greats.
And he's got a body of work because he did a one-hour, back before everybody
was doing one-hour specials every year,
he was doing that shit back in the 90s.
Oh yeah, on Showtime.
Showtime, every year.
Like when I was just starting out, so I think it was like 89 or 90, somewhere
around the way, he had a Showtime special.
Yeah.
And then he had a bunch of HBO.
Yep.
He had a bunch of HBO specials, but the last one that he did before he died in
2007, that is his masterpiece.
Really?
Yeah, it's called Steaming Pile of Me.
And I was listening to it one night coming home from a club and just laughing
out loud in the car and clapping.
Clapping in the car like, God damn, this guy was good.
Yeah, what a pro.
He was so good.
I mean, he was one of those guys that dressed, he put on a sharp outfit and pleated
pants.
You know, really fucking corny, like 90s looking, you know, the collar with no,
you know, the rounded priest collar shirts.
Well, he was from Bensonhurst.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah, yeah.
It's the old school Guinea mentality.
Right, right.
From Brooklyn.
Yeah.
And he would, he would give you, I can remember like at least three times he
would call me an hour after my set and give me taglines to bits.
Wow.
Yeah, and they were fucking good.
He was almost like on the spectrum with that.
Yeah, totally.
He wouldn't look you in the eye.
He'd be like looking down and he'd go really fast and talk with his hands.
Yeah.
And he, I think he, obviously, if people don't know Richard Jenney, sadly
committed suicide in the end.
And what was tough for him was that he was that good and he never really broke
through.
He had a sitcom, short-lived sitcom called Platypus Man that was on like one of
those UPN channels.
Yeah.
And after that, it was like he was the guy who used to fill up his book in
January.
You know, he was, he was on the road 45 weeks a year and, you know, making, you
know, a hundred grand on corporate dates, 50 grand on corporate dates.
Yeah.
With, you know, 15 of those a year.
Yeah, I'm sure he was living well, but he didn't enjoy it.
But he felt like a failure.
Yeah.
And to us, he was a hero.
Yeah.
Like, I remember seeing him at Eastside Comedy Club in New York and it was me
and Joey Cola and a couple other guys.
I only saw one set, but God, I forget who the host was, but the host said he
did a different hour, all four shows.
No shit.
And I went, what?
Wow.
I was so humbled because I was like, I don't even have, I had 20 minutes back
then.
I was like, what?
Yeah.
How did he do that?
How can he do that?
Right.
And they were like, he's the best.
Yeah.
But it was a weird thing.
It's like, he came along before Netflix, because if he was around today and
people got to see his Netflix special, it's just one of those things that would
have caught on.
Right.
But in the HBO specials, you were either home when it aired or you weren't.
You know, there was no DVRs back then.
Yeah.
Maybe, maybe you set up the VHS tape to record.
Maybe.
Yeah.
I could never figure out how to fucking get that thing to record when I wasn't
there.
Oh, no, I couldn't.
The timer.
No.
The timer, you'd end up recording like Days of Our Lives or something.
Yeah, fucking Golden Girls.
Bunch of old twats.
Being written.
It was a bunch of old women and the scripts are written by old Jewish guys.
Yeah.
You know, all menopause jokes.
He's one of the saddest cases to me, because I just don't think that, I don't
know, like, how many friends he had.
Like, in comedy, I know he's really good friends with Chris Rock.
Yeah.
And he worked with Chris a lot.
Like, he was like a punch-up guy for Chris a lot.
But I don't, you know, I don't know if anybody was there to just be as, I think
that's a big thing for us, because we're so, like, I think comics are some of
the weirdest fucking people.
Yeah.
But I gravitate towards them.
Like, I've always said, if I run into a comic at the airport, I'm like, oh,
look, it's one of us.
Yeah.
You know, just, we're weird.
Yeah.
It's a weird job.
We're weird people.
We're all crazy.
I've never met one of us that isn't crazy.
Mm-hmm.
And I think sometimes we need each other to go, yeah, it's all right.
You're all right.
Everybody loves you, man.
Yeah, going to the comedy store for me is definitely like a therapy session, I
feel.
And it's, partly it's that you're performing and you're getting the positive
feedback.
And part of it is that you're running into people, and I mean, it could be
anybody.
It could be an Asian female comic.
It could be a fat, it could be Don Barris, like, the spectrum of different
types.
But like you said, there's something that, there's a thread that runs through
all of it, which is like this, this feeling that, like MMA, we're going to get
in the ring.
We are going to face an audience at some point that night.
And there's a charge to that.
Like, there's a fear.
I don't care who the fuck you are.
You can deny you're afraid when you go on stage every, but it's in there
somewhere.
We've just gotten so good at dealing with it that it doesn't show, and
sometimes we're not even aware of it.
And if it's not there, that means you're probably not taking any chances.
Right, right.
That's not good.
Yeah.
Because then you'll have that dull thing going on stage, and then you'll bomb,
and then you'll really have fear.
Yeah.
When you're doing jokes that you think are killer, and they're just eating
plates of shit up there because you don't have anything left in you.
Yeah.
Like, last night, it was just Murderer's Row, man.
I'm walking in, and fucking Bobby Lee's crushing, and then Chris D'Elia's
crushing, and then I go up and Theo Vaughn's crushing, and then it's fucking
Ian Edwards smashing after that.
It's like, good Lord, what a lineup.
Yeah, right.
And you're hugging everybody.
I'm hugging Dom Barris.
I see him.
I hug Whitney Cummings.
I see her.
Everybody's just like, it's just this big camaraderie place.
Yeah, yeah.
We're so lucky.
Yeah, we survived.
You know, and there's so many guys that I came up.
You know, we came up with guys that I would have, I was competitive when I
started out, and there was guys I had bad blood with.
And I see those guys now, and they're like my brothers, because we went through
it together.
Yeah.
I know.
The competitive thing, I've talked about that a lot.
Like, I had to give that up.
I had that when I was a kid, when I was like 21-ish, because it was still left
over from the martial arts days, like martial arts competition.
Then, like, I would want people to do bad.
And then I realized, like, that is so stupid.
Like, that has zero effect on me.
Like, when they're up there, if they're doing good, that'll just make me better.
It'll just make me work harder.
Yeah.
But if they do bad, like, that's the thing that some comedians do.
They will take a terrible comic on the road with them, so they can look like a
hero.
Hmm.
It's a common thing, right?
It's called stacking the deck.
Yeah.
Like, they'll stack the deck, they'll have, like, just some torturous act for
half an hour, and then they go up and look like a monster.
Yeah.
And that's not the way to do it, I don't think.
I think the way to do it is the opposite.
Just have a bunch of murderers on in front of you and have fun with it.
Yeah.
And everybody have fun.
Yeah.
I think that you – I love – I mean, there's – I don't like going on after
D'Elia.
There's, like, one or two guys that I just don't like going on after.
And – but in general –
Why don't you like going on after D'Elia?
I just feel like he's so physical and big.
And that doesn't really – it shouldn't affect me, but I just feel like when
he gets off, the crowd is just, like, in this mode of, like, euphoria.
And it's kind of like, all right, I'm going to take it down a couple notches
and just talk.
And I feel like sometimes that's my weakness that I can't adjust to that.
Like, Joey Diaz, same thing.
Oh, damn.
It's just, like, the room is just – they got to put their socks back on.
And you're up there, and I'm writing dry shit.
I'm trying to be a little ironic.
And they're just looking at me like, you're small.
You're insignificant.
You're – you know, and all your insecurities start coming out sometimes.
And it's – and I've beaten that.
Like, you come up in New York, and you can't be like that because you're going
on after Attell and Louie and whoever.
And so I came to terms with trying to – realizing that you don't ride the
wave.
You let the wave settle, and you start your own wave.
Mm, yeah.
And I would make that mistake early on as I'd come up, then, and I'd jack up my
energy, and I – and it wasn't me, and then it would falter.
Yeah.
That is – that is true.
You have to bring the audience to you.
Yeah.
Yeah, and the best place to learn how to do that is the OR.
Right.
You know, because first of all, you really – you only have 15 minutes, and
there's all these other guys that have 15 minutes, too, and they go on these
rides.
So everybody's going on a new ride.
Like, okay, we just got done with Magic Mountain.
Right.
Or Space Mountain.
Now we're going to go on this ride.
Yeah.
It's a small world.
Oh, small world's slower.
Settle down.
It's not as crazy.
Where are all the lights?
Right.
Like, you got to settle in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a great fucking place for just figuring it out.
Yeah.
Like, working on your shit.
I'm in this weird place right now with my act where I'm getting ready to film a
special.
How are you?
So I'm hyper-examining everything.
Going over everything with a fine-tooth comb.
But the problem with that is you go over everything too much, and then it
starts getting real blurry.
Oh, yeah.
Like, what am I looking at?
Yeah.
What is this?
Yeah.
You know?
And you start landing – I find that I start landing on the punchlines too
hard.
Ooh.
Instead of talking it out, instead of, like, being – like, the more I do it,
the more I know,
all right, this is where they laugh.
And I sort of – and there's sort of like – I stick it too much instead of
flowing.
Yeah.
And so when you do the special, it's almost like you got to take a little time
off before
you do it.
Yeah.
There's a number of sets you do where you're in the groove, and it's tight, and
everything
feels good.
And then there's a number that you do too much, and everything gets kind of
flat.
Yeah.
You got to find that.
Right.
But what is that?
Right.
You know?
What if they have that in other things?
Like, if that's – it must be the case with bands, right?
When they tour, they must get so sick of fucking singing the same song over and
over and over
and over again.
I mean, I saw the Beach Boys recently, and they fucking love it.
Really?
They love being up there.
You know?
You can see it.
You can feel it.
You know?
I think it goes to another level.
I think there becomes a communication with the fans, with bands that we don't
necessarily
have the same thing.
Right.
It's like, for them, there is a very communal experience that's happening.
And with us, it's more like, we're going to dominate you for an hour.
Right, right.
We're going to take control of this room.
You're going to listen to everything we say.
We're going to bring you up, take you down, insult you, bring you back in.
You know, crowd work.
There's like a whole thing, but it's all being orchestrated by you.
Yeah.
Yeah, another thing we were talking about, about traveling to places.
Like, that the further you go, the harder it is to get there, the more happy
they are
to see you.
Yeah, right.
That's an interesting phenomenon.
Like, if you could do, like, I was saying that Ari and I did a gig in Anchorage,
Alaska
a few years back.
It was fucking amazing.
Yeah.
You get up there in this weird town, you know, and the coolest fucking people.
You ever been to Anchorage?
No.
Dude, crazy.
We got up there, and I'm expecti