 Brian, I got a couple questions I want to ask you about before I do a little bit of a statement You know, I've read in the past that When the gesture in the in the in the in the court of the king when the gesture gets thrown in jail or the dungeon or gets killed That's when people need to be careful. That's when stuff's going bad And you know that's because the rulers were always afraid of satire because humor is powerful Well, I was going to say comedies like the it's like the last bastion of free speech. It's the canary in the coal mine and uh, you know, I've been a fan of comedy since I was a kid and I can't remember a time when uh comedy been more under attack Kevin Hart, uh, was taken he wasn't allowed to present at a big awards ceremony because of a tweet he did years prior I know Dave Chappelle is under attack for some of his jokes, uh, ricky draves, uh, you know hammered What what do you think's going on? I I don't remember comedians ever being attacked. It's never I it may have never been different um, it it it's just that now the You know sort of the cult of the amateur you've got everybody's got a voice And so you can mount a lot of noise at something but Art has always disturbed. It's supposed to disturb. It's supposed to Bother you when when Picasso went through his cubist phase and he was painting and deconstructing the human face, etc That was that was in word and dolly was was talking about bending time After einstein talked about the theory of relativity and times a time was it was called jewish science because he said time is actually relative It's a relationship between two mathematical equations If you're going at the speed of light it changes or it stands still people were like this is against god's words That in itself was reflected by by uh dolly's paintings when when uh, I think was strovinsky did rites of spring in paris. I think it was 1900 He had the if you ever listened to the rites of spring. It's this weird It's like this it's not there's no scale to it. It's this musical It's it's very off-putting like jazz. Yeah, but it is it's really a weird and then he had he had the dancers come out And they were dressed half man half beast. They had their shirts off It was so disturbing that there was a riot in the streets of france. They fucking lost their minds So I think if you're that your job as a comic Is you're welcome for that history lesson first of all, I appreciate it But but but I think as a comic man The minute you start cowtowing or giving voice to You know people who are offended You're in deep trouble. So my job is to just keep speaking and keep and it is you're right It's very easy to cancel people for for something they said And they were you know, you were no longer allowed to say what you don't mean Which is by the way, something called a joke You have to be very careful I will never be careful and I think woe to anyone who does and you're right. You're right the minute we start Uh being I I never liked being mean I never told gay jokes actually even in the 90s And I only did that because I just didn't like making fun of somebody who was I knew there was probably going to be gay people in my Audience it just never made me it always bummed me out I'd hear people using the f-word and stuff and for me. I was like, dude, there's probably like Four people in the room who've been made fun of their whole life And now you're and they're here to laugh and now you're making fun of them And I never liked that that never got to me. I understand not being mean But telling the truth Making fun of how insane This whole world is the wokeville keeps changing the rules on us. It's not enough to be not racist now You have to be anti-racist It's not enough to be you have to shut up and listen, but then silence is violent So we don't know how to follow any of you know, a lot of the examples you brought up in the past were before we Really, I guess valued uh individual liberty right before we had laws that said You can you should be able to speak however you want And the speech itself is not a crime, right? That's that happened a little later We have that now, but it seems like it's going backwards and you did you mentioned something that's very interesting You said that the wokeville's changing speech constantly. That's a characteristic of uh of of marxism That's what they did in the soviet union. They would change speech so much to the point where people were like Psychologically like all right, you tell us what's good and what's not good And uh, we'll just do what you say Uh, and does this worry you at all? Yeah, but it worries me But it also is wonderful because it gives all of us something to push back on And it's part of the grand experiment called the united states. Remember. This is a this country is an idea It's a it's a verb. It's it's uh, it's a beautiful idea You know, the eric winestine said something so brilliant in this podcast He said the magic of america is You are allowed to black burn the flag you have no interest in burning And that's a really powerful statement And he's way more eloquent and smarter and smarter than I am but but you know, I thought about that for a long time And and it does worry me bad ideas are always Always going to be around and they will always be repackaged in different, uh, you know In different ribbons and different, you know paper, but you've got to you've got to you've got to recognize them The good thing about reading history the important thing about being educated is it teaches you the difference Between a good idea and a bad idea And there are a lot of bad ideas coming out of the universities because there's no way to implement them There's no way to make sense of them. Uh at the level of detail There just isn't man. No, and what's weird to me is uh, you know, obviously I Fitness is my profession and I would when I would manage gyms. I've been doing this for decades. Um, I'd get these trainers at a college Who had extensive degrees and biomechanics and Human performance sports medicine and they were always terrible trainers for about two or three years Because you needed experience and and then as an entrepreneur, um, you know, people coming out of business school Who've never started a business? They're they're terrible compared to the kid who's been trying at business for a while And so I feel like the universities are a bunch of people Telling you in theory never have done Yeah, because somebody this isn't my idea, but somebody was talking about it might have been Douglas murray or or nesin taleb And he said the academics are in the business of deconstructing They're in the business of of being on the outside and they don't do anything They they sit around read and theorize that there's that's fine. You need that But what they're in the business of doing is deconstructing they they look at a system and they deconstruct it They don't construct anything the rest of us are busy trying to build a life Think about trying to get in shape think about building any skill or a business You got a bit you got to construct it takes a long time, man Like you got to just manage Personalities and you got to look at the marketplace and come up with the product people want figure out how to get it out There and figure out how to make sure and then it's faulty and you got to have a recall There's a thousand things you got to do and it's really hard to make a buck That's not the case when you have tenor as a tenure as a professor You're able to sit back and go here's what's wrong. This is what if we did this and but you're not in it's exactly like What I love about fighting is that you can be you're a black belt and shodokan karate cool You're a black belt in kung fu whatever it is awesome Now get into a fucking ring and see how you can defend a double leg motherfucker Or just get punched in the face. Yeah, or if you're an amazing you're amazing at jujitsu But then you get into a member of the friend of mine I mean this really amazing jujitsu guy was kind of getting lippy with my friend who was a fighter You like a real mma fighter and my friend looked at him and goes hey, bro I'm a fighter. Are you forgetting that right now? You're awesome at jujitsu, but I'm a fighter It's a different thing. So, you know, there's something very honest about About what actually works you as a trainer know that if I come to you and I go, dude, I'm you know I only do body body, you know Movements and and I'm doing yoga, but I'm getting I have a toy you'd have a point You'd be like, I know brand that's all awesome, but your orthodoxy is no good here Let me if you want to get you want to put muscle on there's a science to that and you know that from Years of experience and you probably look at me and go you're genetically not predisposed to put a lot of muscle on So we got to do this that and the other thing. I mean it goes back to experience It goes back to Getting into contact with objective reality Objective reality you want to be a good comic Get up in front of other comics and saw In front of audiences and you'll know when you're good because the laugh. Yeah, well, you know, there's there's a history of For a long time a lot of people don't know this but academics and intellectuals being at odds with merchants capitalists and business people And I think part of that is First and foremost, you're really smart. It's it's hard to see somebody who's not as smart as you Figure things out and do well. So there's always that that oh, you know, they they're not that smart But look, they're making all that money. We're over here. We know everything type of deal And then the second thing is I think the shadow side of high intelligence is a level of narcissism to where You think you can plan everything better like oh, I know they've been doing it this way for a couple hundred years I know how to do it better. Just follow my way. It's that shadow side of intelligence Yeah, and that's always really dicey man because if you if you're gonna have a revolution And you want to tear down institutions that have been there a long time What are you going to replace it with man? You better know what to usually worse always or it breaks into factionalism And and civil war. This is what I worry about, you know, your institutions came about You know, they were scaled to human beings and to the progress of of how we kind of learn things It takes a long time if you're going to start dismantling things like the police I mean and the fbi and the justice system Oh my god You better be you better have something to replace it with and I'm I am not ready to do that No, I revere the founding fathers. Yes, they were flawed individuals, but man. Oh man I think they solved the political problem. What's fucking amazing about this country is not just that we have A decentralization of power No one has no one can hold power that the founding fathers were the bicameral Legislature you've got the the executive you've got the judicial you've got the legislative branch It was meant to be a slow cumbersome process where everybody is vying for influence That's how they stay out of our lives, man Because you don't want anybody that you don't want power to to concentrate in one area Historically, we know how that always turns out And that's that's that's what's that's in that sense. That's what I think is so incredible about The founding fathers is that they solved the political problem in that even people who are on the far left Are using language That was You know, essentially invented or concepts about liberty about personal sovereignty all these things all these things were were already thought about by the found by the by the philosophers and people who were you know The the children of those philosophers like thomas jefferson and george washington and madison and that's fucking really important stuff They were they came up with something that works for us. It works. It's it's it's you have to be very careful So is this just a natural progression for us? Are we just seeing the pendulum swinging one way? Do you do you have an optimistic view of this or is this a scary time? Do you think I think it's both I don't I I try to remind myself that you know, america's always been a country where Um, we've had debate and we've had left and right and I think you need both You know, jordan peterson said something really great about the left. He said the right is you need you need free markets You need capitalism. You need competition, but you know, there are people that fall through the cracks And those people they need help and and they just can't compete. They're too fragile I have you know, I've loved people like this way and and sometimes you need a net You need a safety net you do you need people who have bleeding hearts and you need social services and things I really believe that Um, so god bless both sides that where the what I what I'm terrified of is not just the attack on free speech Which is so important the way you combat Free speech you don't like is with more free speech in my opinion What I really am worried about and I think is new is the fact that you can purify your echo chamber Like social media allows you to to create your own truth, man And and those algorithms send you down a rabbit hole and that polarizes the fuck out of all it is It is mob mentality now on steroids because the psychology of mob and mob mentality We've known for a long time. This is why riots happen and sporting events or concerts Um, but now you're online and now you can create that frenzy So much easier, you know, I mean, look, I'm old enough to remember when no one thought the earth was flat All of a sudden you have the internet and now you can find enough people who think the same thing Dude, I create a movement. I have a podcast on patreon and it's called the conspiracy social club. I debate I debate. I I debate Conspiracy theorists. Okay. I've had a flat earth around I've had a chemtrails guy and I've had a guy about the occult in hollywood patreon.com slash Brian count But but um, but uh sneak peek on big and hungry podcast coming to coming everywhere February 7th everybody big and hungry podcast me and see burn Funny anyway, but sneak peek on patreon. But but I've I debate these people and dude. They're dead serious They're dead. I mean, I've had and I and I'll smell your flowers. I built a rocket and everything But they're they're also not scientists. They've not had any schooling in the field that they had these strong opinions on And and it's no matter what you say to them and I tried to just ask questions You're not getting anywhere with them. Yeah, there there is a there is a serious group of conspiracy theorists And they take this shit very seriously. I I don't even know what to say about it. I love doing it though I love debating them. I'm probably gonna be kicked off Vinnie or patreon soon because you're not allowed to be talking about conspiracy. Well, we brought you on Brian I mean, I've been a big fan for a long time and we've listened to fighter and the kid big inspiration for us You guys are like like the most honest Podcast we heard out there and I was just like, yeah, and I just want you to go through this and like What happened and you know, what what that looks like now? Uh, what do you mean fighter and the kid? Yeah, we're firing the kid We literally used to when we started the show five years ago fighter and the kid is one of our inspiration It's the chemistry and the banter and the way you guys put it Well, what was so hard is like so Brennan and I are still very close We talk every day and what was so hard was when you get when you get cancelled When you get when somebody just makes up lies about you You can't do anything about it anymore and you have to just you know, I I went on the offensive And I was never going to be quiet about it because it's just it was just insane. So Um, I went on the offensive. I said, I'm not going away like everybody else Fuck this because I know who I am. It's sort as everybody else. I know and and so But what happens is in with cancel culture Corporations your sponsors go we can't right now. We just don't want to know where we're afraid Because it was you had an allegation, right? And there was no evidence. No, nothing just someone said something Yeah, like 21 years ago, right? Yeah, and what was the first thing that happened when you how did you know? Oh, shit I think it was like like eight hours before that my lawyer called me and said there's there's they're writing a story And and you know, you just hear that they're all you hear is that there are allegations and when I read them I went you're this is stuff. I they said I said You've got to remember that that the the these two women said I said something It wasn't even a nothing physical. It was what I said and then a woman from 1999 had an allegation And and I was like and the first thing I said I went who that's not possible It made no sense But you don't know the the detailed story they're gonna tell You don't know any of that you you if you if that was the case I could have mounted An attack I could have been like this is fucking crazy But all you can do when somebody does that and you have an activist who's a journalist because these people are activists They're not journalists. All you can do and they know who you are They you you're the enemy I speak too much. I talk too much and then people know my politics. I'm not even You know, you can't even call me right wing. I'm just a guy who believes in freedom and individual responsibility and those things I'm fucking socially liberals. Fuck, you know, I you know But it doesn't matter you're you're I was lumped in with a group of people Who were considered? problematic That's what happens and I was told that I was told to shut up My people were you told that beforehand? Yes. Wow. Yes, because I would voice I was told by some pretty smart intelligent powerful people from the stuff that you would talk about on fire Sure, and I'm broken and stuff like that and I was like and I was like really fuck off You know, I got nothing. I'm I'm got nothing to hide. I'm been a good guy my whole life Yeah, well, you know, I'm not whatever the case we can trace that back to you know, Chris and I had a chrystalline I had a show on Netflix. So, you know, you get lumped in with all this stuff What happens is my podcast after seven years that I built seven years They go the sponsors go we we can't your agent calls you and says this nobody nobody will sponsor right now And so my my my fucking like all of them all my brother because everybody's got dirt everybody's terrified I'll explain what it is. It's like McCarthyism But my brother my brother who I built a podcast with seven years We had to walk away. I had to protect him. I had to get away because otherwise his sponsors would jump And so that's what fucking happens and what happens is listen if you can come after somebody after 21 fucking years Where you're like what? Yeah, what would you do that? Everybody and it's a verbal thing. I thought it was actually Well, no, no for the 21 years ago was a was a was an allegation of physical assault But but I mean again, what you think I was walking around like Like what do you think I got away with something you think I'm a psycho. Was I wearing a stocking over my head? What are you out of your fucking mind? Yeah There's no way to defend yourself against this insanity. So you're guilty until I mean it's Every guy that you know, who's a comic or every every every powerful man in Hollywood Everybody is including a lot of women who have husbands and sons and brothers Everybody goes they're terrified if they can come after me they can come after anybody They just can and that's that's a that's a terrifying place to be because every guy goes like this. They go I did it a crazy That was a girl a crazy girl in college. I wonder if she's gonna, you know, she's just say, right dude 21 years later. Wow. So are you kidding me? So this this is what this is when allegations become weaponized And and don't kid yourself. It all goes away and don't kid yourself. It's about murdering you There it's it. This is about murder. This is about when you talk about cancelling people It's it's it's what it really means is we want to make sure you never work again And you're on the street and you can't feed your children. You can't pay your mortgage It's nothing other than that. It's nothing less than total and an absolute devastation Don't tell me about, you know, if you're a real scumbag If you're a harvey Weinstein or a bill Cosby, yeah, man, I get it I get it the evidence is too overwhelming fuck off get out of here. Go to jail Otherwise though, you you you know, if people are getting canceled over a tweet I'm talking about a tweet read the madness of crowds a tweet You somebody put and it was like I I I didn't think about it I was fat shaming someone but I didn't realize it and you got to save your career Sometimes this is a very dangerous. Now. Did you you did you have ownership in the show? And did you how did you have to you have to sell it or just bounce? No, no, no I mean, I still I'm still you know, I'm still no but But it's it's It's something that I worry about for my children. I worry about for everyone And this is this is something that and I think a lot of people are worried about it And I think most people can't stand this cancel culture shit. I mean, I that's all I hear Yeah, you know, I the part I have a struggle with is you know, I've always been pro market response Someone acts like an asshole then people stop buying their products blah blah blah But it seems like with social media what you have now is that mob mentality which what goes along with that is this Virtue signaling so to give an example somebody says something and maybe it's perceived as mean I'm gonna jump on that person because I want everybody to know I think he's mean and so you get this crowd Yes, and you get this huge crowd and because I don't think with an allegation if this were 20 years ago Any of that would have happened you but now it's like oh, we're on the board We're on board everybody now, but you gotta fight back you gotta you gotta you gotta you gotta be You know if the problem is a lot of people are guilty So they get they get they get quiet and they hide right if you're not guilty You gotta fucking get out there and go bullshit. No way you don't get to do this now. I'm not going away I said it that's why I made that that that instagram video. I was like fuck And everybody was like don't do this. I was like get the fuck out of here I I know who I am I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say this and I want people to hear me say it I'm not interested in like some little statement. I was told to like write a statement like uh I believe in due process and I'm a supporter of this that get the fuck out of here. Nah That you guys do that not me you're wrong. You're lying I didn't and I'm innocent. So how about that? I'm not gonna that's when you define yourself you define yourself based on Who you are when the chips are down and what you're willing to say You you got to stand up for yourself now. Did that did this attitude Happen right away or you at first? No, no, no, no shell shock. I said to my god. I said to my lawyer and my publicist. I go Hey, you guys got it. Why do you believe me? Why do you think I'm innocent? I'm not interested. I'm not high I don't want to hire a gun I want to know why you believe I'm innocent And I had to hear from them because my my publicist is a feminist I'm the only the second guy she's ever defended And I showed her all my evidence and I showed her all the people that came forward at in after Over the three-day period after that women Women who came forward. I've known over 25 years who were in my life Who are women I've been intimate with dated lived with loved all that stuff the that it was crazy It was crazy how it was unsolicited and I got it all in a file I got it all in a fucking file in a dropbox and I sent it to to her and I sent it to my lawyer I go you guys got to read every one of these. I want you to read every single one of these because I want you to see who You're defending. I'm not interested in any other bullshit. I don't want you. I don't want to hire a gun You have to believe in your heart that I'm fucking innocent 100% the shitty part is it doesn't matter But it does at the end of the day. It doesn't matter. You're right. I lost everything right, but but I will I will keep moving forward. I keep producing content. I keep fighting. I keep saying fuck you Because this is not it's not right. It's not acceptable Due process if you don't believe in due process and you think you can destroy people's lives over rumor over hearsay over Over saying that when somebody says you made a disturbing comment. I was never alone with that person never Proved it, but they don't care. Yeah, so you got it. You got to be full-throated about that and say that And and you keep you keep it's like my favorite quote by Michelangelo is criticized by creating you keep creating You keep going keep going. So do you started other podcasts you did of the projects? Yeah, big and hungry podcast coming September 7th Page round January 30 31 32. Sorry. How's the reception been so far with the what the new stuff you're doing awesome Yeah, because my the you don't you can't listen to somebody for seven years and not know who they are I've always been so fucking honest To the point where we wouldn't even accept sponsors on the podcast that we didn't believe in Do you think your because from what I've heard about comedy for you know I've heard statements like it takes 10 years of being in the trenches of doing stand-up and Bombing and just going through that and before you become a good comic and I can't imagine for me Well, I can't imagine uh, how tough that would make somebody to be able to handle Shit, do you think your years of comedy just made you a badass in the sense that you could handle this? Let me tell you this is for young people and anybody who's interested in mental toughness and stuff um One of the gifts of going through crisis and destruction one of the gifts of facing chaos Is you know as men, I can only speak to men. We if you're a certain kind of man probably every man in this room Uh, you you you you want to build armor. You want to be ready for come what may so we train We work out a lot of this is just building armor for For when somebody comes to take your fucking life It really is like all of us know that at the end of the day We're gonna have to fight for our life at some point. Hopefully it's when you're really old and in your sleep But for the most part we know that this is what it's about And so we we we take our vitamins. We wear our seat But we well we you know we eat salad not because we like it just because we think in our minds We're we're gonna keep cancer at bay for a little while. We do all this bullshit The problem is that when your chaos comes it comes bearing weaponry you have no armor for It comes in a form you've never even seen before it comes in a way that you don't even know how to fight back on You've got to improvise. Okay, and what's beautiful about facing True adversity and destruction Is that you get very if you're smart about it and I say this to anybody who's facing something That's really tough and I'm sure a lot of people listening are because this is part of life listen me Just get very good at forget mental toughness about I gotta I gotta bear through this. No, no, no, no Don't do that Just get very good at Refocusing your eye. You can look at what's wrong. You can look at you can speculate on what's gonna happen in the future And how it's gonna suck. No, no, no, don't do that Just literally take the energy. It's just energy and and just shift it About three feet over here and start looking at how you can make this work for you It's just energy start creating get creative lost all your money start Instead of think about losing all your money think about a new a new opportunity What's what's something the world needs start thinking creatively? What what can you do better that's not being done? Well now fortunes are made in crisis You become a better person when you learn how to manage how to speak to yourself And where to focus your eye? It's very important. It's not about what to think about. It's what not to think about Learn what not to indulge in and I promise you I promise you you will you will There's something beautiful about sort of self mastery in that sense. That's what self mastery is learning Where to look where did you where did you develop this this mentality? I mean, it's it's definitely a winning mentality I've heard it uh echoed in You know different ways from different very successful people. Um How did you develop this where did this come from? First of all, I forgot I was wearing this awesome bandana. Um but uh I think just a lot of failure I've had a long time to fail. I've had a long time to to not get it right I've had a long time to live You know, I've been alive more than half a century. No way. You look so much younger I know thank you What's his name? Eli said that. Thank you. Eli. I appreciate that. The first thing he said is your skin so tight And um, I know it sounds that you're so big. I know I'm fucking taller than they thought My shoulders go on for days. Probably got a dick on me. Who knows probably Probably we'll we'll show you that later in the gym. But um, yeah, but so I think I've just had a chance to fail You know and uh, and that's why I think people should always listen to me I'm always like don't listen to me because I'm smarter. I've just failed a lot more than you have I've got better pattern recognition than you do battle tested bro I can see where you're you're you're heading toward a wall Why do I know that because I've crashed in that wall about 25 fucking times You know my joke about success too is like People are like I did this interview and they were like, had you been so successful in hollywood? Do you have any advice? I'm like listen motherfucker I'm I'm I think at the time I was 50 or 51 and I was like, uh, and I was I had my own tv show huge podcast headlining all over Yeah, I'm making lots of money Okay, cool. Great. Now, listen, uh, this is the formula. You want to be successful in hollywood? Okay. I'm just gonna tell you how I did it Come to uh, come to la Uh, no go to theater school at 24 years old and then uh work as a temp And then somehow start doing bad stand-up comedy and then I got a tv show mad tv I was not ready for it. I just fucking was so desperate that I was so desperate to work I was so afraid to be a failure that somehow I pulled it off in the audition room Got to the big dance and didn't have a fucking thing to say didn't even know I was terrible at characters I was like here I am it was baptism by fire. I do mad tv for two years I get fired because I'm just not that good and I wasn't oh by the way It didn't work that hard. How about that didn't like it too much work And and then I spent really most of my 30s and like I don't know probably until I was yeah half my 40s hearing the word no Over and over and over again. I mean and I get a job here and there and then I I'd you know I'd hold on to that but for the most part getting tv shows that didn't go You know getting a getting a movie and I got cut out of it. I mean just no no no the humiliation waking up in the middle Of the night. I'm fucking 35 and a failure by this time Jesus Jesus was already dead Alexander the Great had conquered the world at 33. I'm 35. I'm a fucking loser. I worked in nine months. That's the kind Oh, I'm 38. I'm 38. I'm jobless or I'm on a fucking show where I'm making no money But at least I get to go work sometimes. I'm uh, I'm you know, don't blink I'm five. I'm I'm in five minutes of that big movie I just kept doing it and and so finally I get you know finally I think I'm 45 in my podcast. I get this I meet this fighter Who's a great businessman and we just start doing that was my third podcast people forget third And it finally catches on because brennan was brennan shops are really good businessman And we had this great chemistry and I was just I'd had so much practice by the time I was 51. Yeah Yeah, dude, it took me 25 years That's not even a success And I the joke is like if if a sparrow if we stood out you stood out here and every time a sparrow flew by you threw a stone at it You'd hit us you'd hit four in a year You probably hit four in a year If you threw a sparrow at a fucking stone at every sparrow that flew by And then if you put them up on you stuff them and put them up on this wall After 25 years, how many sparrows do you think you have a tan? You have yeah, maybe more. Yeah, you might have 50 I prefer to feed the sparrows. Yeah That's because you're here. I could tell that about you if we throw bread at the sparrow. How many would you feed? By the way, I'm very happy with your with your quad development. He's got he's got big quads, but he's a he's a lot more there Birds land on his shoulders But if you walked in and you saw all those birds So this is a terrible metaphor But you saw birds on the fucking wall and I was like sal how'd you do that? You'd be like I knocked him out of the sky with a stone and I'd be like You must be the best stone thrower in the world. Yeah, right You know, I took me 25 fucking years to get that many sparrows That's literally how I feel about my success. Yeah, and that's how most people feel about their success And and success doesn't stay It's not like now. I'm a success get that it gets harder and harder Do goblet squats and pull-ups and run hills As you get older it only gets worse. It's not like I goblet squats today. Let me bang out. I think fucking suck I like saying god Brian take me to take me to like The moment of of fighter and the kid really starting to to take off and evolve What was that like for you like that meeting brendon and then you guys hitting it off and then When did you really know you had something when when connor McGregor did the podcast and uh, and I looked at brendon and and He looked at me and he said You just keep doing this. We just keep doing this Just keep doing it. What do you mean? He goes just keep doing this what we're doing That's all we got to do and I remember a while and then I was I was at the tsa guy He said the kid And I was like damn we're getting recognized and another guy was like brian count I'm listening to your podcast right now. So you Yeah, I'd be in the airports and people would start to recognize then you start selling out You know and uh, how fast did the podcast get traction? Do you remember your downloads and things like that? It took a long time It's a progression. Yeah, it takes time But you you know, one of the things I noticed about really successful people like rogan Is that you know, joe joe will tell you it's not that he works hard. He's just really consistent If you're gonna if if you if he starts something He's gonna like say he started some martial art He's just never gonna stop. He's gonna show up every single day It doesn't matter whether he feels like it or not. He just shows up. It's not about time. It's not like um Like like I working out that way too like you can work out You probably know this you could probably work out if you're my age you can work out 20 minutes every other day if you do it right if you're lifting weights, right? You're you're gonna be in shape. Oh, yeah a bad a bad workout done consistently Is more effective than a good workout done inconsistently. There you go. Yeah, there you go So I think everything is like that. There's not a secret to it No, let's talk about podcasting for a second because it's it's a relatively new medium um, it's different than uh previous media because previous media was so Sure, I think long form communication. I think a lot of people thought would never work Um, every you know interview was 10 minutes 5 minutes. There were sound bites all of a sudden now We have endless broadband. We could just talk forever the hour two hour podcasts became a thing different skill altogether and arguably You know you got people who that's comedians for example who do so well on podcasts Maybe not so well stand up, but the podcast works so well. What is it about the skill of podcasting? What makes it so different honesty You have to be authentic and you have to and I think uh people really appreciate when you're going through Shit, I always did like I I'm always cognizant of the fact that I'm older now And I'm I'm the age of a lot of young men's dads and a lot of young men don't We don't live in a culture that makes you feel good about yourself man or woman You know we we live in a culture that that is trying to sell you something and the way you sell somebody on something Is the fact that you're lacking this this is what's wrong with you But you know what what we want to know especially young men is how to be effective in the world Where to place my energy? How do I accomplish something? How do I become significant? I don't want to be regular. I don't want to have to grind at this dumb job I want to do something that makes me feel like I'm using all my talents along the lines of excellence And and that that's and and sometimes what's really important is like That's why I say if you're a podcaster make sure you immerse yourself in the best that's been thought and said Which is another way of saying read broadly Listen broadly listen to people that you don't agree with If you if you're if you're a Milton Friedman Free market guy listen to mankusa listen to the opposite end of that spectrum Listen to the left the left wing intellectuals like gnome chomsky You might get something out of them read the fifth risk by by uh michael lewis about where government is important And how big government actually can help I I I had to I read that book and it changed my goddamn mind so so and the reason I say that is because What I think people really appreciate with podcasting is understanding the difference between things Not the similarities A mark of somebody who doesn't really do a lot of thinking is to say ah, it's all just it's all the same It's just like that. No, I don't not interested in that. I want to know the difference I want to know what the difference between this philosophy and that philosophy is the difference between What how how you train somebody and what your philosophy is and why it works versus this over here Yeah, and speaking of uh of that So we've seen so far other new media start to kind of clamp down on uh opinions different types of opinions twitter and facebook and instagram and podcasting so far seems to be Still very open and free. It's the savior dude. It seems that way. Do you think it's next though? Do you think we're we're we're on the chopping block next impossible Why? It's very hard to first of all new technologies. I have I've had three people Uh big entrepreneurs come up to me with new New platforms anecdote the great thing about the marketplace in americans And people in general is that that if you start censoring things like parlor and all that I mean all anybody's talking about now is hey, you can't be canceled on my new platform So technologies are you know, good luck good luck trying to silence the internet. It's undefeated motherfucker Look at reddit right now. What's going on with the stock? I mean, it's got its dark side, but man, you're not gonna these long-form conversations Where somebody who's made a lot of mistakes gets to kind of talk and you're asking me questions And we're all having these these conversations And there's nothing toxic about this conversation. I hope that this is just men trying to figure it out You know who want the best for everyone? You know, I mean, this is this is what goes on. So I'm I'm I am optimistic in that sense. I don't think that they can I think censorship is always a threat. It's always a worry, but Technologies are coming about that are already taking all of that into account So if you have sensors something you just make the demand even oh, yeah You make it you push against that it seems to get stronger the best thing that can happen Because if you're throwing off a platform sometimes because you can turn that into I'll just go over here and bring all my followers over here Who are outraged by this Americans hate censorship? Americans really don't like this shit. They don't that's true They're just they just this is this this idea of speeches violence and all that and sounds about Very fringe stuff with a bunch of you know Real really cloistered academics who are not good people. They're not good people They're they're really not they're they're damaged traumatized Resentful activists. They're not even scholars. Yeah. So Brian. We we've been doing this We just rolled past our six-year anniversary that we've been podcasting and for sure Six years coming in here five days a week recording podcast I think of these three guys is like family now, right? We're so close We're so tight and we talked about before you coming in here like man I can't imagine being in Brian's position like where I may be something because I Shit there. I'm sure someone could come out 20 years that I said something or did something when I was younger or whatever And I would be put in this position where Man, if if I was going to go down I would definitely opt out like to not the the sponsorship side of our business is represents 50 of our income It's a big chunk of money for us And if they were all going to walk away, I would I would bow out for my buddies But man, I think on the sidelines it would be breaking my heart to see what's going on like How does what's that like watching shabby right now navigate all the fans like reaching out? I see so many people that are so angry that you've left. It's been so overwhelming. That's amazing It's been it's been you know, I there's got to be a part of you that it feels good Right because so many people are like fuck this show without callin, but then there's a part of you No, I want the best for in and look it's not it doesn't mean I can never go back Okay, right? It doesn't mean that that won't eventually happen or that that's you know But you know again you you have to Like what is that the first rule of the the samurai Miyamoto Masashi's 21 rules accept everything Exactly as it is You have to do that and then you have to go this is what's going on right now I must I must pivot I look I love that about life. You're not a fighter. Listen to teddy atlas on rogan Where he says you ain't a fighter until there's a guy across the ring who looks at you and goes I don't care that you can hit just as hard from both sides. You got to make me a believer You're not a doctor until the kids on your operating table bleeding from every orifice And you don't there's nothing in the textbook that tells you how to fix this kid and you fix that kid You're not you're not a you know You're probably not a fully realized human being until you've come up against yourself and you're facing an enemy You don't know how to fight and you find your way through Tom Brady is awesome because that motherfucker finds a way to win. He doesn't need bellachic Hurrah does man. You're like god damn you're 43 And this is this is this is this is the challenge to always be embraced It just is and it could be way worse It could be an aggressive form of cancer. I could be a quadriplegic man You got to always remember that too. Yeah, so You know It happened good. Yeah good. Yeah, let me find my way through. Yeah, let me get better at managing my mental state How's shabby handling it though? It's tough. Yeah, you guys talk every day. That's my brother, right? We're close Yeah, we're still close. We talk every fucking day. Yeah, so it's it's uh and shab's a fighter Of course, I mean if if all comics were like shab Uh and by the way, you know, this is another guy who started out as a comic and was like it'd be like me trying to fight He didn't he was like, you know, it was it was so new to him Watch him now Watch that dude now you want to talk about a guy who just never stopped Didn't matter who was criticizing him His stand-up is fucking killing it. It's I can't even tell you what that means. It's so exciting to see Did you coach him a lot? Did he I'm sure he turned to you in the beginning, you know, I would I would Go over stuff, but to his credit he pushed me away like that. He was like, I can't have you As my influence because people are gonna see you in this. All right So he knew that and yeah, and he just stood on his own and just kept getting up Having people like me open for him You know, that's not that's scary Not to be a dick, but I'm fucking really good Miami February 4th 5th and 6th everybody fucking Miami improv then I'll be in Nashville February 11 12th and 13th zanies But but but whatever the only if you like left super hard, but um But you know, he doesn't care. Yeah, he doesn't care He's but there was a larger point to what I was trying to say, but um, yeah Talking about how he's probably feeling. I mean, I I can't imagine Yeah, because the chemistry you guys had leaving these guys and then whoever the dude is that comes in that would replace me I got to sit back and watch that and then I'm talking to them like how's this guy doing is he fucking I don't know if I can pay attention or listen. Hey, you know, it might be too much It was hard. Yeah, but like anybody else like shop doesn't stop. He's like gotta save the show. Let's go Let's move always moving forward. Yeah, that's it's all you can do, dude You talk talk about being a family man talk about your how old are your kids? I got a nine year old in the 12 year old So talk about being a father. I mean all of us are dads. It's uh, you are all of us are yeah Adam's the newest newest father But it's it's it's probably the most challenging if I had to think of the most challenging things I've ever done Probably being a dad trying to be a good father all the time Um, how was how was that during all this chaos? Do you go back and just hunker down with your family? Do you communicate this to our two? Are they too young to understand you learn who your real friends are and you learn Who your real friends are not and you and what you do is you deepen your relationships It it forces you to actually see the people that have been there the whole time And there that's another gift is that you deepen you're like one with my son Who's nine like I work him out sometimes like we box and uh, and I'll teach him and he'll be doing pull-ups It might be 15 minutes 20 minutes, but that that that Connection that you have with your son Uh is my daughter's 12. That's a different story because she's she's tick-tock. I can't compete with tick-tock And she rolls her eyes at me and she's it's it's you're not got the moves down or anything She's becoming a woman too. She's wearing heels and makeup. I don't even I don't know what the fuck to do It's a disaster, but And I'm I'm dad. So I'm just get away from me. You know, she's just like get the fuck away from me Yeah, she's barely she can barely stand me But um that that in itself is a challenge because you just got to keep giving love She'll teach me about life. She's she's an activist now, you know, and apparently I'm apparently I'm warming the planet Apparently I'm privileged I'm like you're welcome for fucking everything Wow, talk about how challenging that is having having I know sal has this kid Who's really smart too challenges some of the ways he thinks how is it? How old you're well my my son's uh 15 my daughter's 11. So you know that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you go from being the coolest person in the world to being Embarrassing all the time. Yeah. Oh, so, you know, well my my daughter's a trans activist apparently now and You know, she's she's she's uh the world America's a shit show and and I'm just like who needs my fucking country You know, I sound like an old man. I'm an old conservative man compared to my daughter Who's super woke I guess at 12 and I'm like you're you're being indoctrinated by the socialists I totally overreact and she rolls her eyes at me as she should And she knows things probably that I don't even at 12. Maybe maybe or maybe she's maybe we are headed for disaster And then I got my son who I'm trying to make a man. I don't know what a man is in in the 21st century I don't know how to teach my son Not to be a liability, you know, you're being taught that aggression and competition and why the best for yourself is Toxic and I have a problem Well, you know, if you if really if you actually look at where like real toxic behaviors come from They typically come from not having a male role model So it's almost like an expression of what they think They're supposed to be or too aggressive or whatever But just being there as a dad, you're probably gonna have a son that's gonna be a good kid Just just being there at least that's a statistic. That's a really good point is like I I was this guy who works with foster kids and he's uh, he was my uber driver But he had his degree in like psychology child psychology or something and I said to him. Um, hey, dude Do you have any advice for me as a father because I got I got the my kids at the time or like whatever and And I said, do you have any advice and he looked at me and goes All I know is you just ask me for advice on how to be a good dad your kids are Going to be just fine because you cared that because I care Yeah, you're there and you said and I had another woman who is like this big She was a child psychologist and and I said, uh, I have a daughter, you know, my daughter was young Give me some advice. I don't know how to fuck to do this and she goes just don't leave I was like what she goes class over so I got I was like, oh, okay, dude All right. Yeah. And so now my kids just know that I love the fuck out of them That's all that's all that matters. That's the most that's the most important thing I think is show them love and then maybe some discipline and structure But even if you don't have that the love by itself Look, you want your children to have to be carried to your casket because their legs won't work because they're so full of grief If your kids are sobbing at your funeral It you should be congratulated by everybody around you your kids are fucking really devastated. Good job, dude terrible Great analogy if your kids are in die your pain on your death you did your fucking job My goal is to make my kids crush my goal is to have my children not be able to eat for a month after my death That means I did my shit Kids are losing weight sparrows on my wall, you know, I'm killing it all the sparrows stare at the sparrows and we Fucking did it those with the rock Daddy's gone You're welcome for everything, you know, you you you talk a lot about fitness and uh, you know Fighting how long have you been into into fitness? You're obviously a fit guy. I see you in front of me I commented on it when you came in very Extremely is waiting for that starting to question. Do you see my obliques? Dude, it's all about obliques. They're just lines. They're just a line my fucking hip muscles my dents Yeah, but you how long you've been in into fitness and in uh into fighting I just like, you know, when I was I was the first thing I ever did when I was nine I I got into judo and I I kind of great sport. I love I did judo as a kid My teacher was an olympic gold medalist a japanese guy in saudi arabia And uh, just giant japanese man with a huge mustache I'd never seen a man a japanese man that big fucking heavyweight And uh, and I I was doing judo and I saw a small his another black belt Throwing a large man and I was like, I want to do that I was obsessed with bruce lee and shit and then um, and then I went to high school in in massachusetts And I wrestled I was a wrestler and wrestling fundamentally changed my dna and and then got into kickboxing and all that shit in college and And then jujitsu and I still roll and I still box and I still spar You know, I there's something about sparring that I really like. Oh, I was getting dizzy I I haven't done it in three months or two months because um, like I said to shab I go, I'm dizzy and he goes Yeah, dude, you getting paid for this keep it up. It's really bad for you I love putting a mouthpiece in and ahead and just like again I love that that's something about fighting that, you know, I don't know It just like makes me feel like I'm or or like I was doing uh Or like I work with this guy was a samba. I love takedowns. I like I like drilling takedowns I'm fucking I need a psychiatrist. I'm old. I was I was practicing how to slip my joke But it's a true story. I was slipping. I was like I was because when you slip to the right I get punched I can never like I can slip to the left But if I'm and and I was doing this and my mother goes, what are you doing? I was in utah visiting her I go, I'm fucking I'm slipping shots because I and she goes you're in your 50s I was like, I know She goes you have to go to a psychiatrist She was dead serious. Yeah. Yeah, I remember The thing I think I learned the most because I did jujitsu and judo and I remember the first class I took in jujitsu. This is after doing judo for a while. I rolled with the instructor who was this like skinny You know 150 pound Indian dude purple belt And he tapped me out. I don't like five times in five minutes and it was humbling It was very humbling and one thing I remember is in in the class You don't see a lot of big egos Because everybody gets their ass kicked all and I feel like that's the most important thing you can learn Is how to get your ass kicked and then be okay with it and not you know, it's also It's also it's not just getting your ass kicked. You also know that if there are no rules that person could take your life Oh, yeah, that's the other thing about rolling with dudes who are really good It's like, oh, you could take my head off. You kill me. You could take my head off my spine Like roll with shab He'd be taking a nap he's a big dude on top of it He'll tell you it's 250s trim 270 That's stronger than there's brandon shop. Yeah, I've seen him deadlift. I've seen him deadlift 550 on a hex bar I've seen him. He did that 10 times 10 times Like for reps and then he did 10 sets of that. I saw that with my own eyes He did a turkish get-up. He put on a barbell He put a 145 on and did a turkish get-up with that he balanced it and it's 270 pounds Yeah, and then he did it with then he did it with uh 165 And then he did 30 pull-ups. I saw it So oh and by the way when he was deadlifting his brother told me he was bending the fucking bar It's a different thing and what I would do is he'd be taking a nap We were shooting something and he's taking a nap and I get he was like all tired and I get fucking deep I get a head and arm choke and I sit my hips out like a judo thing I'm like and I squeeze and I'm like now what the fuck dude Where are you gonna go? I got a gable grip and I'm I mean I'm I'm sprawled out and I'm on the bed and I'm like Yeah, how about now what what and he starts to giggle Well, he did was giggle and he took my face He just with his hand he took my chin And he peeled me the way you open a curtain on a sunday morning when you have coffee You know you just go I need some sunshine It's gonna get a little sunshine on my face while I sit in my coffee He went and he just went and I was like, oh wait my whole body. How are you? How are you bending me at the waist? And he went he go and then he just brought his his lazy leg his lazy fucking oak tree for a leg And kind of snaked it around my face again And I I got gene burn. I got gene burn on the cheek as he just fucking bent me backwards It was a bad day for all So you're you're judo slash kung fu slash jiu jitsu is no good here when it comes to brandon shot And I've seen him do that with 300 pound black belt simulans. Yeah, I've seen him do that with the biggest best fucking wrestlers I went when when when he the famous thing with rogan when he said rogan said, how would you do against those wrestlers? And he said I think you'd be surprised You'd be surprised. I've seen him. I've seen him take the best in the world and pack a lunch So speaking of fighting, what do you think about what's going on with this movement that we've seen in the last, you know few years of Like influencers fighting big name people like what do you think about this? I like I mean, I I wouldn't want to fight logan paul and jake paul. Those guys are like really in there sparring They're big fuck. I've seen you're big. Logan's a big kid. Yeah, he's a big big athletic boy. Yeah I mean, he's a big strong athletic kid. He wrestled I think not in college, but like he's he's never stopped working out He's never stopped training and if you see him throw hands, yeah, you better pack a lunch. You know what he's doing I'm not sparring that guy Fucking would never get in the ring with that guy. I mean because he's just too big and strong and athletic and young And I mean if he hits you you're going to sleep. Yeah, it's not a good situation Watch jake spar jake has taken or his brother. What's his name? Logan? Logan, but then there's jake paul Yeah, yeah, logan paul jake paul. Yeah, jake for I from what I've seen on instagram That kid is actually sparring and getting wobbled himself I'm actually worried for him, but he's really in there and serious about I respect it So I don't know. I mean is he is he gonna be a professional and find no But well the question I have is do you think it's gonna disrupt the fight game? I mean you have hopefully right you have something going on like with ufc Where what connor migreger makes? I don't know what his biggest payday was in ufc But then he goes outside of that and he fights someone Boxing's always been that way, you know fighting's always had you know, ali fought professional wrestlers and martial arts guys That's right. He fought that japanese wrestler didn't he that yeah, it's always been that way We always want to see that but the difference now is that these guys are actually in there banging and getting knocked out Yeah, and they're and there and there's a lot of money on the line Well, yeah now they have what I find interesting is now you have somebody like a logan or jake paul who Nobody would have known who they were if they were they'd had this social media following that they have And that's that they have enough millions of people following them that they can actually Sell the shit out of they're making 20 million dollars for this I mean god bless and jake paul. I think is serious about becoming a fighter I respect that. I mean he's what the fucking dude is actually making well, okay Let's see so he's making millions of dollars And he's challenging himself and being and one of the few people one of the few youtubers are Entertainers or whatever he is human beings who's willing to actually get in the ring with a cross from a real athlete that guy Nate He thought it was a real athlete. Yeah, all right a sick athlete Right right and he's willing to get in there and bang bang and now he's challenging ben ascrin. Yeah, and those guys How do you think that's gonna go? Well, it's just boxing right they're not gonna If it was emma may ask her and I think with dumpo You're not doing that. He'll if he touches you you're good. Yeah, it's all it's all over Ben askin, but I don't know that Ben askin ever want to fight striking I think it's all been wrestling and then pounding so so I think it's a smart idea Ben Ben's a great athlete and I'm an olympian and all that but This is boxing ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, I don't think people really realize the difference between good and world class I've I've you know, I've grappled with Black belt good black belts and they're really good and then I've gone against guys who are world class And it almost feels like they could well, I mean this is true Like they could beat me while old eating a sandwich and watching a tv show like literally With their eyes closed they could kick my ass. That's right. It's a completely different. It's a whole different universe It's their job And that's the other thing about that's awesome. You're good in practice good This guy's made the walk This guy's made the actual walk That's and that when that's why I respect guys like doesn't prayer anybody who steps in the ufc and in the octagon Anybody who steps into the professional ring because you to get there you had to learn how to talk to yourself You had to learn to deal with injury. You had to deal with how to lose weight properly You had to deal with a lifetime of disappointment of the fear of It's very different and then they perform on that big stage You know, you seem you're a good guy to ask this that you're you're very smart And you know, I think you've been presenting this case pretty well and what I always find fascinating is the more Civilized and the easier we start to make life. I mean, let's be honest in modern western societies It's just life is physically just easy. We make everything very very easy and then we see the explosion of Like spartan races and all these crazy stuff almost like we have to feel like we're almost going to die It's a part of it's a part of being a human. Otherwise. We don't feel like we're alive Is that I mean do you do you agree with that? Well, I think Freud said if you take away competition if you take away war Of some kind Man will kill himself, you know, we'll turn that aggression back on ourselves Aggression as is competition imposing your will Whatever it might be is is that that will to power is so fundamental to human beings men and women by the way It it just is so you you know, when you when you no longer have a way to express your masculinity When you no longer have anywhere to place your aggression Which is so fundamental to human You know the human experience it will manifest itself In it will have to be simulated some way Sports a great place for it. You don't want it being done on a battlefield with actual weaponry You want it you want it expressed as entrepreneurs You want it expressed in the in the marketplace as competition You want it expressed in a ring with a ref On a field with a ref this this is this is what's beautiful about aggression, you know, you know the the movie the matrix there was that one scene where they have I think it was a Morpheus and they caught him And they're trying to get into his brain to crack the codes for you know, wherever Zion or whatever And agent Smith says, you know, we made a perfect matrix at first It was it was a utopia for humans and we lost entire crops because the human mind could not perceive A world they without challenge and without you know death industry. I thought it was such a brilliant Do you believe though that we're building towards that right now? And that's part of why we're getting such a pushback with our society think about what we're doing We're making things easier and easier and before long some people believe that Anything that can be free will be free in the future I Have you ever heard the theory that you know, like these theoretical mathematicians and physics physicists are talking about in terms of like so We know evolution is is is been the order of the day and that's if you believe in science You believe in evolution and there's an overwhelming amount of evidence for that Then you have Newtonian physics, you know, the kind of physics that we live in with this is, you know, matter But then there's quantum mechanics quantum physics, which is how electrons Work, but they're two different realities, right? Because one one kind of contradicts the other sometimes and Einstein and all these physicists have been working on what's called a theory of everything Which is this what is the bridge? What is the theory of every unifying theory? Yeah And it's what I what I think one of the ideas is one that this might be We may already be self-replicating machines so that this is no this is How many layers deep you think we are in this real in this simulation? That's what I mean is that we might be already on a loop. We're controlling our own evolution. We're controlling our own biology We're kind of synthetic biology nanobots Gene editing so that pretty soon we're going to be able to create creatures We're actually going to be able to create the cross between a lion and a man I mean, this is not if you extrapolate 20 years 30 years. This is not far fetched. This is not far fetched at all What what and I think China aren't they doing chimeras or all that stuff now now exactly and now think about also also Virtual reality right now. It's very crude crude and rudimentary Okay, but if just extrapolate 50 years from now, what is virtual reality going to be like like this? You're going to have a real reality. This might already be a virtual reality This may our brains the real Sal the real, you know, we might be in it might be like the matrix this might always Stat statistically there are mathematicians and physicists think it's more of a probability, right? Well, and and this this might be machinery this might be and we're making better versions of ourselves already This is a perfect time to talk about conspiracy theories Yeah, yeah, no, okay. I want to get into this like so you have a whole podcast around this now And I'm sure you've come across some amazing theories for and things that you've come across What's your favorite one so far? I mean They're all so far-fetched that none of them are my favorite. What I what I think is interesting is that No, but like entertaining um Flat earth. Okay. I mean, that's the most incredible thing I I talked to this flat earth her And he was telling me that there was an ice wall around the world an ice wall just like game of thrones I said, well, well when you chart your flight pattern My dad said was a pilot and you know and when you chart your flight pattern You take into account the curvature of the earth and how you I mean, this is all done And he said, yeah, I know a lot of pilots are starting to speak out about this And I go so nasa is having people just fly in weird securities routes just to keep this Globe myth going. Yeah. He goes. Yeah, I go. They're all in on it Okay, and has anybody been what's be on the ice wall? He goes nobody knows I was like Ah, so we don't fly past that and I go where do the people who want us to who's controlling on this? He goes, hey Who's running Costco, do you know? Hey, was that the defense and I go I go. I go. Do you have a degree in anything concerning Geology or astrophysics or anything? Oh, do I have some lying bullshit degree? No. I'm like, oh, it's all a lie Okay, I guess everything that's in my cell phone is also a lie Like if you start asking them questions that are you believe in scientism and they'll hit you with this But the problem with the real conspiracy theorists is that When I see them, I'm like, you're not you're not you literally have had zero schooling in this field And then they'll say things like I'm just asking questions, man. I just doubt I just do research. That's all I do I just watch videos really so all those like it's like the chem trails thing I was like So so this is a anytime you see chem anytime you see anything coming out of a plane It's a chem trail. I go. Who's running this? It's a worldwide thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's worldwide And would any environmentalist be a little up in arms about this or are they all in the dark too? Are they all in the take and any investigative journalists? Is it only you guys you small group of people that just seem to have the truth the enlightened ones It's fucking fascinating. You know what just seems like like last year especially like it was at its ultimate peak Like I've never seen so many conspiracy theorists think all of a sudden everything's unveiling and this is all happening And this is like we have to believe that first of all human beings can keep secrets And you have to believe that people are that organized, you know, this this venture capitalist was Tried to get um, I think it was I think it was my buddy who's made more money than God and he tried to get like five um This venture capitalist wanted to raise crazy money and she she wanted to get five of these billionaires at lunch To present her thing She couldn't get any of them to these are very powerful people She couldn't get any of them to meet with each other because they all hated each other because they were all suing each other One bang the other one's wife. They were like they all run the same. They're like, fuck you. Fuck that guy I'll never do business. She couldn't even get them to sit down because of course not But they all work together to keep the conspiracy. Yeah, right. We're tribal That's the problem with the idea behind all of it It's like yeah, and if you're a good conspiracy theorist or if you're good anything You want to always have and and I think uh, I think, um, eric winestine said this wokistan and magistan Are both, um, they both have elements of truth And then it's filled in with a bunch of craziness. So you always want some That's the only way it gets used use truth use some of the truth To get your point across and then you just you cherry pick the data So how do you explain epstein island? I don't know. I I I I think to me, I think, uh Epstein was probably working for a foreign entity And I think that this the massage let maybe let's say that that is israel and israel said I know how to get I know how to get influence over really powerful men men like banging Women and powerful men who happen to be married Let's put them on an island you get these gorgeous women out there and you videotape it Or you just get you know, you get it on camera somewhere or you just have dirt on them That's a really good way to get influence. That's a that makes sense to me like, you know It seems like it's like this is a great way to get people You know blackmail. Yeah, and the way he died. I mean could they have made it any more obvious? Like all the cameras shut off. Nobody knows what happened. He killed himself. Oh, really? Yeah, I didn't follow that but you know, maybe that's what happened I I okay if it was the israeli massage or but then again also like one what's his name? Epstein didn't have anything to live for did he though? What was going to happen to him? He was never getting out of jail. That's true. He was never getting out of jail He probably was never going to be able to be in general population uh, so Killing himself would have made sense. It's not surprising to me that he killed himself It's also not surprising that he had tried it already. Did they fail the first time? Come on. Yeah And that's my thing about it. Like he he he tried it the first time And then he was on suicide watch. So did the massage fail the first time? I don't think they fail Well, what's that saying if you see hoof hoof prints in the sand think horse not zebra So it's usually the obvious Not that not the crazy one exactly, you know, you talked about a lot about competition and how it's natural and I can I assume there's competition in the In the comedy world in the stand-up comedy world. How does that surface? I was just gonna ask you What does that look like or is it just a lot of camaraderie? Yeah, I don't the comedy so it's so its own thing I've never thought of it as competitive. I don't know how you compete with comedy All you can do is write funny stuff and get up and be funny And if it's funny people laugh, but I've never ever felt that any of the people I know From bill bird or joe rogan to crystallia to sam trippley to, you know, I mean, uh, any of any Anthony jezel necker and they're all doing their thing. They're all up there You know, you do your set you crush a room or you don't and then you go back to the drawing board You're too busy writing and trying to come up with new things and writing your one hour and perfecting it I don't know how you compete with that. I was like, I beat you My I mean, I've had friendly competitions. I used to do this with crystallia all the time Like I get all I love the way you guys talk about to each other on instagram as the great We still do. I mean I I would get off the stage and I'd be like Like one time I I did we had this competition to see who would make people laugh the most at the laugh factory And he went up and then I went up and I I I did you know, um Really funny But so is chris, right? But no, we we both kind of did we killed it's a packed room and we did our thing, right? And so at the end of my set I looked at chris and I go hey chris and he was just there and I go It's how you do it And the whole fucking place went crazy. So in that sense, it's a fun, but it's not like a race Who's your favorite comic right now? Who do you think are some of the the greats? I love I love bill burr. Oh, so he's got to be my favorite Sebastian makes me laugh so You know, um, you got to give Dave schruppel his due for just telling the truth Dave otell is a beast Dave otell is the funniest motherfucker. I mean, it's just a pure comedy Uh, I think louis ck, you know, I was listening to him recently. I never used to listen to him much But god, he's fucking a killer. I I've always loved kevin hart. It's but he's gotten so rich now But you know kevin's Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like I like the people I know. I think they're all I think they're all how are how are comedians in in general with business because you mentioned kevin hart Like one of the things that I think about his brilliance isn't just his stand-up Is also his brilliance as a businessman like I think he's Kind of paved the way for a lot of comedians. Is that true or what do you what do you think? I think that yes, you know, I think that podcasting and it's it's for the first time Really, it's you can make a lot of money as a comic that used to be not the case It's very rare that you could actually Sell 3,500 tickets or something now you can now you can sell 6,000 tickets with podcasts and It's really allowed comics to reach a much broader audience Um, so and then you've got your netflix stuff and so I I think um, this is a new thing So business has Being a businessman selling merch It's kind of a rock star Model of things. Um, but I think that's fairly recent. I don't Does that feel weird? Is that for someone like you who's been in the business for so long to like transition that way? Well, I mean, yeah, I remember I remember when the comedy store wasn't the comedy store when there were 12 people in the room And then Rogan's podcast and and all of us doing podcasts talking about the comedy store So people from all over the world were coming to the comedy store So I would have somebody from pakistan Calling me mr. Callan and being all like just so excited It was fire india I'd be on a plane and somebody from mumbai was like, are you on how I met your mother? And you just stand up and or a guy from sweden said you're on my screensaver. You're like, what? What all because of podcasts all because of social media. So that that's very new for us Yeah, one thing that surprised me, uh, when I was younger meeting, uh, comics, uh, was how intelligent, uh, they all seem to be You don't necessarily see that when they when they're on stage and doing their their acts. Obviously, they're funny But you talked to them afterwards and you just they're highly intelligent. Is there a correlation between You know being very smart and also being a comic I I would assume there is because you have to observe things and be able to present things in ways that are That are funny that people are used to I don't know if you're smarter But I think what happens is if you're a comic typically you're doing that because nothing else worked out or that's I mean really or that's the only thing that really that, you know, you you have to be to some extent a misfit I don't know any comic that's not a bit of a misfit That's not a very dysfunctional in one way or another and I mean all all comics And I think what that really is is uh Is having this ability to be on the outside looking in You know, it's like I don't know too many fighters who didn't come from some kind of a broken home Sure, and I don't know too many comics that didn't come from some strains unorthodox Beginning, you know, it's like dove david off one of my favorite comics It was talking about how his dad was a you know, his dad's smoking crack in the fucking In the bathroom and his mother at one point was gay living with a woman underneath Like in the basement of the house and the woman had a pet monkey and you know His father was like I was going to have your mother killed, but I could never do that to you and your brother That's that's what he said. That's how he that's as close as he got to killing So he became a comic his dad be smoking crack in the bathroom. He goes dad were dad. I need to use the bathroom He goes, uh, um, I'm in the garage and he's like I can hear your voice. He goes not your father He's like Well, tell my dad whoever it is to get out of this garage slash bathroom. This is real true stories about that So so much of what um makes you a good comic and makes you a comic in the first place Probably is the fact that you came up differently that you were always on the outside looking in There's something really There's something about that that causes you to be more of an observer And you tend to get perspective on what's weird. What's wrong? What doesn't make sense? You're not orthodox. You don't go into comedy if you're what was that for you What was that for you? Uh growing up all over the world Oh, I I lived in seven different countries until I was 14 So I was born the Philippines and then I moved to Calcutta then then Bombay now Mumbai And then we moved to Lebanon then Pakistan then Lebanon again the war broke out We got evacuated to Greece and then and then Saudi Arabia. So by the time I was 14 I had lived in all those countries and traveled even more than that To russia at the time when it was communist to china when it was very communist Everybody's wearing the same outfit and riding bicycles. I mean I saw all these things I saw real poverty in Africa real poverty in pakistan and india Um, I was too young to remember india, but real poverty. I mean real in yemen I went to yemen and I had never seen I saw leprosy I saw people with leprosy like advanced stages of leprosy, which we don't deal with anymore So it gave me such an appreciation for this thing called the united states It made me such a patriot by the time I was 14. I was like america. I never lived here And I was going to boarding school But what made me a comic was I was every year and a half two years I was thrown into a new group of kids and the way you make friends is you you you kind of become Um, luckily I was coordinated enough to be okay at sports and but mainly I was like hey I know how to get people all like me. I'll make you laugh I'll make a spectacle of myself. I'll be a fucking Idiot and you guys will laugh and that's literally I think why Stand-up is so natural for me. Do you think you think it was like a lot of self-depreciating humor? Is that how you started? Yeah always. I never liked myself I mean this and you know this idea you have to like yourself as such horseshit low self-esteem is a good thing It is I'd never be funny if I liked myself. I was built like fucking muscles over here Seriously, like I've always wanted All my humor is about the fact that I didn't grow up to be a big strong muscular handsome fucker, you know You know, you can't like yourself. It's like low self-esteem is how it is is where a lot of You should have a sense of your own inadequacy a profound sense of your own inadequacy Because everything is a fucking compensation and and I'm serious. I mean that that that is not necessarily a bad thing Stop you don't have to I hate when I believe in yourself. Stop fucking believe in myself. All right Tell you what bro. I'm gonna put you in a ring With john jones. He's gonna kick you in the head. Do you believe in yourself right now? The way you believe in yourself is through Training practice and you only believe in yourself under very strict narrow confines put me up in front of a group of people With a mic. I'll believe myself because I've been doing it forever Put me in a ring against a guy who can really bang. I'm gonna I'm gonna run away or pretend to faint I don't believe in myself. I don't believe myself in a lot of things That's that's that's not I always when I see comics. I always think of how Courageous they are because you know when they when they ask people What your number one fears are it's always public speaking is kind of one of the top ones And it's really the fear of people rejecting you and as a comic Especially the beginning you go up there and you probably suck a lot. What does it feel like to bomb? It wasn't feel like to bomb in front of a group of people. Is that just Terrifying and does it ever get easier? I have it on tape somewhere the first time I ever did stand up and Have you ever been in a real fight where you don't where the guy you you're gonna get your ass kicked You're like when you're in a real fight like you're all this all your jiu-jitsu and all that shit You're like out the window You anchor your back foot and you're like i'm gonna go with this dude and he's bigger and stronger And I don't know if he's gonna bite my face. I'm fucking terrified like I've been training all this time And I can't feel my legs right now Here goes right and that's an awful feeling right? You're just like everything's like nobody wants to talk about that But I don't give a fuck who you are You're always terrified and I don't care if you're an MMA guy if you're in a real situation like that It's always like worse. You're so afraid. It's natural I was more afraid than that the first time I got on stage like I couldn't move my face, dude Like and my voice was really high and I was trying to do caster and I blanked I blanked in the middle of my set I sure did and then I fucking came back and did it The first two times were baptism of fire. What made you go back? Because I knew I had it Because I was funny even the first time not to be a dick, but I was I was I was I think you have to get a little bit of that Don't you feel like it don't you feel like to keep you going you have to get a little taste of like, okay I think I could figure this out. I was always making my friends laugh. You know, I was always making my friends. They were all telling you You were so funny, man. Yeah But it's like being the tough kid in the neighborhood and you got an american top team You go fucking roll around those guys and see what happens to your face You know, so so, you know, there's something called professionally funny, but I knew I could do it I knew that I was never going to be a great actor and I was never I was you know That's okay and acting Talk to us a little bit about hollywood. Is it uh, I mean we just know it was the old worship Satan. Yeah Let's get into it. Well, they do the old worship I knew it. Did they drink the blood of children? You must drink the blood of traumatized children because there's adrenaline running through Yeah, that that stuff is no hollywood is um Is is a business like anything else and And acting is always so precarious and there are so many people that are great for five years Who was it? Jay Leno said it's a matter of time before you're the last guy in the chair The matter of time you're you're a movie star now, but then you get three movies that don't go so well And people forget about you and you're putting movie jail And now I mean now hollywood's so different. There are no movie stars anymore. Yeah, there aren't your youtube stars and It's just my kids don't even care Yeah, dude the the the age of brad pit and tom cruise. I think Is probably over because There's just too much out there and and you don't need stars anymore. You just need good actors And the movie is the star. Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean my kids don't even I could ask them to name a hollywood star and a clinic, but they could name 10 YouTube beauty pie influencers Uh, you know right right away and that is those are the new stars But how long do they last you know that's that's a very fickle thing But you know the beautiful thing about youtube is you don't need any you don't need this machine when I was coming up You needed a machine You needed a publicist a lawyer a manager. Yeah, good point You needed this whole infrastructure and you saw a third of your money For real you saw a third of your money You didn't see if you you made if you made a million dollars, you know, you You were kind of save your money. There's a reason most actors are broke because it just goes it's it's not Especially if you're trying to live in hollywood too. Yeah For the first time for the first time you have control for the first time your phone can make you a millionaire It's kind of crazy. It's it's really weird. Well, I brian. There's no doubt in my mind. You're gonna come back with a vengeance Uh, I think you just you have I mean your attitude. Obviously you're talented. I think you're phenomenal What is it looking like for you in the future? You're starting a podcast. You're doing more stand-up anything else People should luck out. I'm gonna focus on on this new podcast big and hungry That i'm doing with steve burn is a great comic and uh, and I'm gonna focus on that I'm gonna continue to do this patreon thing with the conspiracy social club until I kick me off And that's been so much fun just to argue with these people and I'm just gonna and I'm ready to like release my next special You know, I'm shooting it in miami. In fact, uh, february 4th 5th and 6th improv And then uh, and I'm gonna shoot that and then I'm back to the drawing board I'm never gonna stop writing. I'm never gonna stop Trying to surprise myself because I'm in the business of original self-expression And I think that's needed more than ever now and as I get older I just try to stay as fair as I can. I try to keep good ideas out there And doing podcasts like this is always a privilege. I appreciate you guys having me out Of course, you brandy before before we hang out though I wanted a question about this because this has been something that's uh, it's been on my mind My my I've changed the way I look at things Much of my motivation early on was to reach this point of success financial success When I got there it totally shocked me that I was unhappy and it wasn't what I thought it would be Were you ever driven that way? Were you driven for money? Were you driven for success? And then did you reach it and did it did that change for you? Funny question, you know, I when I was about a year ago two years ago I drew a line through everything I'd ever tried to accomplish I came to LA and I had a list I was specific about my goals and I drew a line through every one of them I did everything I lived my goals and I'd accomplished everything and um What I thought was interesting is that I think in life you need a certain amount of certainty That's a good thing about money is that you need to know that you have a roof over your head And you need to know that you have food and you know that that stuff's important Then you can give too that's really important that you can pay for a meal and that you have a car and those things are really important Um, but once that happens Um now now what are you going to do? I think you need adventure Adventure there are two things that are really two commodities that are always I think scares adventure and intimacy Intimacy is something you get when you you guys have it among yourselves You have it with the women in your life. Hopefully Um, you you know, but it's rare, isn't it? Intimacy somehow is that that feeling of um deep understanding deep connection with somebody And and soldiers have it when they go to battle Athletes have it when they're on the same team you guys have it when you're trying to build something Whatever it is, you know, usually a mission and trying to accomplish that mission creates an intimacy You face plateaus and adversity and things like that But boy, is it rare and it's it's you a lot of times you find out You get real intimacy in crisis, you know And um and the other is adventure and the way I define adventure is not knowing what's coming next And you need some uncertainty in your life. You'll get bored. You need some danger And and and always bring it into your life And the way to do that is to do things that you're not so good at It's humbling, but it's awesome and it keeps you uncomfortable and it keeps the ribs on you And I think that's very very important. You can get very stagnated and stale in the same gym with the same patterns And I think it's really important to change your patterns up and learn something that you haven't done before And and practice a skill that scares you all of us want to do something that we're not doing What is it? You know and and do it. I think that's that's probably the best way to mine Who you really are at the end of the day. It's about learning About who you are learning more about yourself and remember this too that you're that life is one continuous mistake and it's just about Adjusting and adjusting and is a great. There's a great saying that mark hansen said and this all are not giving a fuck He said instead of asking what you want. Ask yourself what you're willing to struggle for Excellent. Excellent. Great way to end it. Brian. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Yeah. Thanks for having a good time, brother Thanks. I appreciate it