Name: Georges St-Pierre | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #523
Uploaded: 2024-08-09T15:35:55.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Georges St-Pierre | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #523' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-08-09. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Georges St-Pierre | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #523' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-08-09. Transcript available.

Georges St-Pierre | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #523

Sitting down today to talk about dinosaurs and fears with one of the greatest
mixed martial artists of our time, of any time.
He won UFC belts in two different weight classes, and you can't even talk about
the sport without mentioning him.
I'm really honored to be in his presence today, and I mean that.
Today's guest is Mr. George St. Pierre.
I'll sit and tell you my stories.
Shine on me, and I will find a song I've been singing.
I love this guy.
This is your country, man.
Yes, sir.
And so it's, yeah, because it's French-Canadian.
So, which one is the real one?
Or which, you know what I'm saying?
Like, who's really the boss or whatever?
Well, there's no really, I mean, who's the boss?
I don't know if there's really a boss.
Like, if you had to pick one, do you get to pick one, or every day it's the
same?
Yeah.
You mean the boss?
Talk about the leader.
Yeah.
Most people will tend to say, oh, it's the, you know, the political leader, the-
Of Canada or of France?
The prime minister or the president.
But I'm, I think, I mean, you can call me conspirationist, thinking that, but I
don't think he's the one that really controls everything.
I think he's the, there's people behind that.
Maybe.
I mean, that's what I believe.
I could be wrong, but that's what I think.
That's what I think, too.
Yeah.
I think that the president is the face.
It's a face.
It's the puppet.
But, but, but like our prime minister is the face.
But I think there's people behind that.
There's certain things that he, he cannot do.
That's what I, I believe.
Did you always believe that you think?
Or that you think that's grown over the years, kind of?
It's a good question.
I think it's grown over the years.
Yeah, same.
Especially because there's a lot of, sometimes, sometimes there's a lot of
conspiracy that turns out to be true.
Yeah.
And, and there's so much stuff on, on internet nowadays that you can try to
search every, any, anything, and they will give you something to read about.
Yeah.
A certain subject, even if it's completely preposterous.
Yeah.
So it's hard to, to, to know what is real and what is not.
Yeah.
But maybe that's the reason why, because of that, it makes me realize that, oh,
what I'm seeing is maybe not really what it is.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I think it's fascinating because, yeah, say if like a lot of media was like
kind of all controlled, right?
Then, of course, they're going to not want you to know something.
Yeah.
And eventually people are going to kind of figure those things out.
People figure things out.
I think it's, it's always about money and power.
I know.
People that has money and power, what they want is they want more money and
more power.
I tend to believe that most of people are mostly in the middle.
And like, if you look at politics, you have the extreme right, extreme left.
And, but most people are, I think, mostly in the middle, you know, that they're
not to one side or the other.
And then the way it's portrayed is that you have to pick one side or the other
side.
And you're like, shit, I don't know what to do.
You know what I mean?
Because I'm, you know, I'm stuck in the middle.
Yeah.
I think stuck in the middle is probably the best spot, you know?
And I think most people are probably pretty logical, you would think.
But then maybe sometimes I start to wonder, do I give people too much credit,
you know, like, are a lot of people just batshit crazy, you know?
And then I wonder sometimes, am I just batshit crazy, you know?
Yeah, it's true.
We have to look at ourselves in the mirror sometimes.
It's hard.
Yeah, but I wonder sometimes, like, yeah, I'm amazed, I guess, that power and
money drive so many people.
Like, I get it being like an influence, you know?
But I think there's a part of me, I guess I'm shocked that it has that much
control.
What do you think, I mean, you're kind of one-on-one, George, you've had such a...
I mean, you got to almost have kind of a perfect career in a lot of ways, you
know?
I made tons of mistakes looking at it, and I wish I could do better, because I'm
very critics about myself.
But, yeah, I'm happy with what I have accomplished, yeah.
And do you think, was it power, success driving you?
Like, what was kind of your driving force, do you feel like?
I'll be honest with you, 100%.
I never liked to fight.
I love the sport, I love the science of it, I like the camaraderie that I have
with my friend, you know, before, like, a training camp, you know, it's like
you're going to war.
I despise fight day, it's unbearable for me.
I'm extremely uncomfortable and not knowing if I will be hurt, humiliated or
winning the ultimate price is unbearable for me.
It's very hard to deal with, but it's the price that you have to pay if you
want to achieve freedom.
Like, for me, I first started doing it because I had a certain natural talent,
I would say, you know, if I would be born with an anticap, I wouldn't probably
not be able to do what I did.
So, I was a gifted athlete and I also worked really hard, but I also, I
consider myself extremely lucky.
The stars were all aligned because there was guys that I've met through my
journey that were probably more talented than I was.
There's guys that I met that probably worked harder than I did.
But I think what made the difference is the fact that I met the right people at
the right time at the, sometime life gave me certain opportunity that I did not
shy away.
I was always willing to get out of my comfort zone in order to improve, which
is not the case for a lot of athletes and not only athletes, like entrepreneurs,
humans, for a human, for, for all of us, it's hard to get out of our comfort
zone, but sometimes it's necessary.
It's a necessary evil in order to, to improve.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I think like what you said, like, cause you can control how much you, how
hard you work.
You can control, those are a lot of control factors.
Yes.
But that is, that's a risk when you get out there and you get on a fight day.
Yeah.
Some of it's out of your control.
I remember that.
Did it feel like that?
Is that what it felt like kind of?
It's, it's, it's always a question of risk and reward, you know, it's
calculated risk.
I remember the, if I go back, uh, more than like almost 30 years ago, uh, I
couldn't really speak English very well.
I learned it at school, but I grew up in a French environment.
So my English was really bad.
It's hard.
Yeah.
And the first time I, I, I remember I was already a black belt in karate and I
wanted to go to the Gracie Academy in New York because that's where the best jujitsu
athlete were, were training at the time.
So I knew that I needed to go there in order to train with the best to learn
from the best.
So I'm about, at that time, I'm about like 16, 17 years old and, uh, I'm
planning to go there with two of my friends, two of professional, that are
professional athletes at the time.
And, uh, and, uh, one of them, only one of them speak perfect English, so he's,
he's, uh, yeah, and it was not like it is today.
There were, there were not like ways, so we had to go on MapQuest and it, it
was a pain in a, in a butt to find your way.
So, so I'm driving, I got a shitty Ford temple with a hole in, in, in, in, in,
I remember where I, I used to put the, the brake pedal.
So people used to make fun of me, it was like the Flintstone, you know, I could
almost put my foot on the floor, you know, so we, we, the plan was to go in New
York to, to go, to go there.
And we share, uh, we shared the hotel together, so we save money and we, we, we
share with the gas and everything.
But the day before, the day before the trip, one of them called me and he's the
one, it's the one that speak English.
He's like, Hey George, I cannot make it.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
And I'm talking to the other one who's supposed to come with me.
He's like, Oh, if he's not going, I'm not going either.
I'm like, man, well, you know what?
I said, I said to myself, I F it, I'm going by myself and that's it.
So I went there and I remember, man, I got my ass whooped by a guy who weighs
maybe 30 pounds lighter than me.
Wow.
I, I got, I got tapped out like in Jitsu, when you're stuck in a number or
choke, you have to tap.
Otherwise your arm break or you get choked out.
So, and I remember at the time I was like, man, I was, I was getting mold.
I was a black belt in car ride.
I was good, a good striker, but in grappling, I didn't have a lot of knowledge
and I knew I needed to learn it in order to become a mixed martial art fighter.
But man, I got beat up so bad.
And I, and I remember driving back, I was, I was that close to, to, to give up.
And I, I told myself, I said, you know what?
I need to go back out there and learn.
And every time I was going back there, it was tough for me because guys, a lot
of them were trying to bully me.
A few of them were very nice to me, but it was a constant grind.
And I remember the two guys that were supposed to come with me, they asked me,
Hey, how was it?
I'm like, man, I got my ass kicked so bad, man.
They never came back with me.
They were like, they wanted to stay in their comfort zone.
So that's the difference, you know, if you want to succeed sometime, it's a
necessary evil.
You're going to go through pain.
You're going to, it might be humiliated.
You're going to, you're going to fail, but then I have to go through that, man,
in order to improve, you know?
And that's, that's what I was ready to do, which is probably the case of other
guys.
So that the reason why I was successful was not because I think I was more
gifted or, you know, I, I work harder.
It's just because I was ready to do that sacrifice, you know?
Yeah.
What do you think kind of made you in that space to take that sacrifice?
Cause I guess it's like, yeah, I mean, it's well, giving up is easy.
Yeah.
You know, I think saying something is better saying something's too hard.
It's kind of easy.
You know, I think unless you're different, I think some people look at that as
a challenge
and some people look at it as an, uh, just a reality.
Yeah.
I think, I think, I think if you want to be the best at something,
I'm not talking being good.
I'm talking about, you want to be the best at something and in, in every field,
I think you need to be a little bit obsessed.
I, I was never diagnosed.
I never saw a psych, a psychologist for it, but I think I'm, I, I'm obsessive
compulsive.
And I think.
Did you notice it when you were young?
Like what kind of things did you see that you would do?
Well, one thing I would do, um, that is completely crazy.
Uh, uh, it's, it's very stupid, but I, I used to do like when I, when I walk on
the sidewalk,
for example, I remember in New York going to train, I walk on the sidewalk and
there is line on the
sidewalk.
And I noticed that I stepped over one line with my right foot, but I have to
step.
Over with the left to make an equal number.
And it, sometimes these things are so stupid, but it drive you nuts.
When I drill techniques in jujitsu, I have to do this in, or wrestling or any
combat sport.
I have to do the same amount on each side, even though in a fight, I will most
likely do one
side, my best side, but I have to do the other side.
And I think these things as crazy as, as it sound, are probably some of the,
the things that made me perform well, you know.
Right.
Cause you need things to be even, you need things to be calculated maybe, or
even the fact that
you're even calculating things is kind of, it sounds crazy.
Yeah.
It sounds obsessive, but it also is kind of magnificent in a way, because to be
great
at something, you're going to have to be someone who's calculating things, even
when you're not,
even in your subconscious.
Also, I think it's good for an athlete for performance, but you need to learn
how to let go.
Yeah.
You need to learn to punch, punch in and punch out.
And sometimes it's hard.
I see in the news, sometimes some fighters, they can't do it.
You know, they, they, they go crazy.
They keep going.
Ye