“A Lot of Mediocre Comedy”: Joe Rogan Makes a Surprising Revelation as 55-Year-Old Recalls Early Days of His Stand-Up Career

Joe Rogan has proven to be pretty successful in his endeavor as a comedian besides thriving in his podcast and as a commentator for the UFC. He has released several comedy specials which have received positive responses. The 55-year-old recently opened up about his initial days as a stand-up comic in a recent episode of his podcast.

Joe Rogan is arguably one of the most influential figures in the world today. Besides having a million-dollar podcast that garners millions of viewers around the world, he also started doing comedy during the late 1980s.

Joe Rogan gives an account of his early days in comedy

The 55-year-old claims to have started his comedy back in 1988 and appeared in many shows. He worked with MTV, George MacDonald, and the late Teddy Bergeron at that time. Rogan said, “I started after the wave. So I started. There were all the evenings at the improvs then and stand-up specials like the MTV Half Hour Comedy Hour.” He added, “George McDonald was the host of the open mic nights. And you get to see Teddy Bergeron would stop in.”

Joe Rogan claims to have started his comedy career during the time when television comedy started to die down. Television comedy was one of the earliest forms of comedy during the early days of entertainment media. Rogan added, “I started when the wave of television comedy was just starting to subside. The comedy boom was starting to settle down.”

The UFC commentator also revealed a noteworthy personality who inspired him try his hand at comedy.

55-year-old reveals who inspired him to do comedy

Joe Rogan stated that the comedy sketches and gigs were not of very high standard when he started out during the late 1980s. He said, “There was a lot of mediocre comedy out there. There were a lot of people who were doing what sounded like an impression of what a comedian should sound like.” However, there was one comedian who was one of his first inspirations for getting into comedy. It was Richard Jeni. “Well, definitely watching stand-up on TV, I used to love watching Richard Jeni on the Tonight Show. He’s incredible,” said Joe Rogan.

The million-dollar podcast host then narrated an instance when his phone automatically started playing during Richard Jeni’s stand-up sketches. Joe Rogan could not stop laughing while he was driving back home. He said, “It [his phone] just randomly played this Jeni bit and I was laughing so hard driving home.” Rogan didn’t just stop there. He later downloaded all of Jeni’s performances from that particular category. It made him realize how good he was as a comedian.

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Recently, Joe Rogan became the first comedian to open his own comedy club, ‘Comedy Mothership’. He mentioned that the aim of his comedy club was to help foster new talents and help the comedians get paid. Rogan is thriving in every endeavor that he’s undertaken throughout the course of his career. What do you make of Rogan’s revelation? Let us know in the comments section below.

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