It’s Sunday morning, and I’m in a metal tube hurling through the air 30,000 feet above Ohio. I’m not exactly sure when I’ll get around to posting this online, but this is when it started. My Spike TV comedy special is filmed and in the can, and now I can relax for a few days. At least that’s the plan. Even as I sit here trying to close my eyes and listen to a little Blind Melon on my ipod there’s already the distant rumblings of discontent emanating from somewhere deep in the back of my head; telling me my work has only just begun. I’m never completely satisfied, and if I am, it’s disturbingly brief.
The filming of my comedy special went about as good as I could have possibly hoped for and now comes the editing of the video, the ruthless self-analysis, and ultimately the writing of a whole new act. I can already feel myself gearing up for a fresh run at an even higher frequency – a new level of material and connection that can only be achieved by throwing the old away and building the new from a fresh foundation – a foundation that’s ever evolving.
At least that’s the plan. Whatever comedy really is, whatever expression is and whatever creativity is are really is pretty much up for debate.
I mean, we have these things labeled and because they’re labeled we tend to pretend sometimes that we know exactly what’s going on with them, and that can be really deceiving.
If you look at it simply, comedy is just a guy or a girl making some people laugh, but I really think there’s something more to it than that.
Comedy is a really weird form of expression. It’s a way of describing life that makes people feel good. It triggers a response in us and actually makes us feel better. And when I say us, I really do mean us. You get a charge from it in the form of laughter, and I get a charge back from you. The more you enjoy it, the more pleasurable it is for me.
The only way I can enjoy it and be good at it though, is if I don’t ever think of “me” when I’m on stage. You’ve got to sort of vanish into the material and go for a ride.
We filmed two comedy shows, and I was so amped up for the performances that I really had a hard time relaxing. The night before I think I only slept for maybe an hour. I was in bed for 8, but I just had too much energy. I jerked off twice, still couldn’t sleep.
I knew I wouldn’t be tired, though. Quite the opposite really, because my problem was that my body had too much energy. By building up to this special and making it an important event in my mind, my body responded accordingly.
The problem with that is that we still possess genetics shaped by a savage world of murder, long, long ago. My body doesn’t really understand that important just means a comedy show – it thinks that wild animals are coming to eat me.
An important event registers to my body that danger is coming, not that I’m just going to have a very important good time, so I had to really consciously try to relax it.
I did a hard cardio workout Thursday afternoon to try to relax and stretch out, and I felt really positive about the whole event. I was really looking forward to it in a really calm, positive state of mind. I had two sets that night, the 7pm one was a lot of fun once I got going, I caught my stride somewhere after the first few minutes when I finally relaxed it just became what I wanted it to be; just another fun show that we decided to film.
The Q&A in the first one was awesome, and I just want to thank everyone that came up and asked questions. I especially appreciate the people that were such good sports when I was fucking with them. Both shows were awesome about that, and I truly appreciate how cool you guys were.
The 10pm show was fucking insane. That was just like any regular fun show. I was completely relaxed, and it was really just a matter of putting it all together with the correct amount of focus. Especially since I was loose from the first show going so well it really flooded into the second one. I think the Q&A was definitely better on the first one, though. We’re going to edit it all together for the special, and then for the DVD it won’t have as much of a time constraint so we can put a lot of the behind the scenes shit in there too. Now comes the really challenging part: writing new material.
The challenge of creating all new material is exciting, but what’s even more enticing is the whispering promise that the new shit can be even better. I filmed the show just 3 days ago, and now I want to edit it and release it like a rock thrown from the back of a hot air balloon and use the momentum to push me to the undiscovered territory of my creative consciousness.
I feel like I’m a part of some crazy momentum right now, and I’m obsessed with seeing where it will take me.
I’m at a point in my life where I’ve really embraced the idea that the energy I put into my work will be directly, absolutely reflected by the results.
This past month preparing for the filming has been a real revelation, especially the writing of the daily blogs. Forcing myself to create something every night has reinforced the abstract concept that these ideas are out there in the ether, you just have to put your attention to them and draw them out. Sit down and think. Focus on it, and the ideas will come to you. The more you focus, and the more correctly you focus on it, the more the ideas come. Over the last few years I’ve been ever more curious about the source of creativity and ideas, but lately I’m absolutely obsessed by it.
One thing that I’m aware of that’s incredibly important is that we need to be inspired by each other. Paul Mooney told me that once many years ago; he said that to get excited to write he likes to go get entertained. He told me to go to a movie and then you’ll want to write some jokes.
It was excellent advice, and I’ve followed it ever since.
Right now I’m finishing this up, and it’s 1:47-am on Tuesday. I’ve got the movie “Gonzo” “The life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” playing in a small window in the corner of my screen. It’s an awesome documentary, and it’s incredibly inspirational to me.
The editing and the music choices are fantastic. It’s really well made.
I have to confess; I never really read any of Hunter’s work until I did a gig earlier this year in Seattle. I was doing a theater in town, and I had to fly in a couple days before the show to do radio. I was bored in my hotel room, and on a whim I ordered this movie and was immediately charged and inspired. I wound up writing for hours after it was over because I was so motivated by it. Hunter was a crazy motherfucker, but he wrote some great shit, and had a huge affect on an enormous amount of people. The documentary always makes me want to write whenever I see it, so I fire it up often.
Music, movies, books – we feed off each other’s inspiration and work, and what I truly hope more than anything for this latest special that I just filmed is that I do my part and contribute to this chain of inspiration. I want someone to watch my special, and want to go write, or want to go paint, or be inspired to do anything else that you enjoy.
That, and laugh. Treat it like it’s yours, because I made it for you.
Mad love to all you cool motherfuckers, and a special shout out to my boy Tommy Jr.
If there’s a typo in there somewhere, he’ll find it. 
Tomorrow I’ll throw up some pictures and video of the trip.
Joe,
I was at the 10pm shoe at the Southern. Thank you for that show. It was amazing. The energy you had on stage was incredible and you could tell you were “on”. I was lucky enough to get front row seats at that one and I cant remember when I have ever laughed that hard in my life or ever felt that kind of energy from a single perfromance. I was the guy with the “Schorodingers Cat is Dead” shirt.
I saw you again on at the FunnyBone on friday and damn if you did not kill again. Thanks for a fantastic weekend and I look forward to the special and seeing you again as soon as possible.
Hey Joe,
I’ve only just got onto your stand up career (through UFC) and listened to your Shiny Happy Jihad show, so i’m looking forward to hearing/seeing the Spike TV show.
I had a brief wander through some of your blog posts and when i came across this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7928996.stm i remebered about your interest in chimps. You can read it for yourself, but the article basically talks of how this chimp in a zoo in Sweden worked out where the weak part of the enclosure walls were, broke off lumps of concrete and hid them where he could access them once the zoo crowds arrived, and then throw them at the visitors.
Thinking about your ‘Hello Stranger’ post, that’s probably what i’d do if i was locked in a cage.
Joe,
Thank you for making my friends and I laugh till our faces hurt! The 10p.m. show was the shit dude! Good luck on the new writing, I know you’ll produce some inspirational material, as always!
Its funny. I check your website almost everyday. And today i happen to be listening to Blind Melon as i was getting onto your site.
You got it figured out tho. And the keys to life is postive energy. Comedy is a great form of postive energy for everyone involved. Keep it up mane. And BUY THAT HOUSE FOOL!! Dont know what ur thinkin waiting.
I was lucky enough to see the 10pm show and I’ve been on a Joe Rogan kick ever since, thinking about creating and getting inspired, researching flotation tanks, phalaris and the price of a wheat grass juicer, watching YouTube clips, and — I swear — on a daily basis, thinking about all that “left over monkey shit”.
You are right about good comedy being more than just making people laugh at your jokes. I really enjoy your comedy when I realize that it’s actually myself I’m laughing at. Keep on getting people to lower their walls and stop taking themselves so seriously, keep on putting yourself out there wholly and genuinely, and I guarantee you’ll never lose that audience chemistry.
Columbus loves you!
Peace
I attended your Friday 8pm show at the Columbus Funny Bone. I was seated exactly opposite from my assigned seat at last year’s show, within convenient tickling or tripping distance of the performer. Fortunately, this year I didn’t earn a martini-induced moniker like “crazy lady,” which actually followed me to the Arnold Expo floor last year.
Your stand-up is beyond inspiring, Joe. Your routine is thought provoking and hysterical in its ability to pointedly reveal the hypocrisy and sheer idiocy of the human condition and the institutions we’ve constructed around us. You riff about some of the most critical topics of today, and do it in such a physical, entertaining way that your points hit home with a hearty laugh. Amazing the way you seamlessly weave together seemingly disparate issues: sex, evolution, zoos, prisons, and babies, for example. You see the continuity between these subjects, and have developed certain themes in your presentation to the point where the audience is gifted with a coherent take on today’s most pressing issues, all in about one hour!
Your thoughts on the natural world and the role of humans within it, the evolutionary process and inevitable sexual urges, the infinitesimal role of the individual consciousness, the energy or life force that is continuous between all living beings, and on, and on, and on… Brilliant! Most people cannot have a cogent discussion of these topics in a one on one format. For you to have successfully tackled them, refined them, and presented them in a comedy routine format that touches a broad spectrum of people is awe inspiring.
You indicated that you feel restless, that you feel a certain urgency connected to the creative process that is now. The material is there, Joe, just waiting to be uncovered. You’ve alighted on all of the most critical themes. Even now they are morphing in your mind and in the collective consciousness. By tapping into the energy of the cosmos the way that you have so bravely opened yourself up to, insights will only come to you more plentifully. You’re the penultimate prophet, Man. Who woulda thunk…?!?
Greetings from Mexico .. just across the border with Texas (excuse my english typing i stink at it)
It really surprised me to know that you are aware about the drug war here in mexico.. that 2 hour gun shooting that went on that day.. it was blocks away from my house.. dude.. it is a war.. it sound it like that.. no normal guns.. you could hear automatic guns.. explosions and stuff.. it’s unbealivable this has been growing very scary since 4 to 5 years ago.. well at list at my town in Reynosa Tamaulipas.. go ahead and check out youtube’s ”balacera en reynosa” and you’ll see what kind of war is going on here..
And about the documentary.. really scary how religion it’s driving the faith of people, even in the U.S. Mexico whatever.. im catolic but only because i was born in a catolic family.. there’s so much fucked up shit going on with religion.. with many religions.. i bealive in God, but the religious part im a little unsure
and did a mentioned that i cross the border to see friends of mine like 3 days a week? yes.. that near the U.S. is this shit going on..
I have to say Joe, I’m completely jealous. You are a lucky, yet self-made and well deserved guy. I hope someday I have a following like you…..so that I can feed off the energy of my supporters. I love writing and will continue to do it as much as possible, but it sure would be helpful to know that thousands of people are waiting for my next material. Keep using you’re third eye, and never stop inspiring, because your supporters will never stop being inspired. Continue to link the chain of connection that fuels our evolution! Peace and Laughs, AustinCurtisBitch.
Oh yeah, watch the 2012 enigma with David Wilcock, this motherfuckers a crazy genius…….trust me, its nothing like any other 2012 related media. I don’t know what to think about it!
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WOW.. awesome post.. I was just inspired just by reading it.. It’s interesting that you brought up Hunter S. Thompson because every time I look at the picture of you in the goggles for the Spike T.v. special promo, I think of Hunter S. Thompson and was wondering if he inspired you to dress up like that. Thank you for explaining how you get positive reinforcement from laughter in the crowd, because I was wondering if doing these gigs were just so repetitive for comedians that you would just become numb to them, but i guess not.. Keep up the good work Joe..