Joe Rogan is returning to the realm of comedy with a live special, ‘Burn the Boats’, on Netflix. He is scheduled to perform for a worldwide audience on the 3rd of August. The famed UFC color commentator last performed live about 6 years back. However, there are some hurdles that comedians face with a Netflix special.

The JRE host began his career in stand-up comedy back in 1988, at the Boston-area Stitches comic club. Needless to say, the comedian in Rogan has kept on rising ever since. He has released about 6 hour-long specials on Netflix and performed live at 4 different venues. Now, as he gets ready to end his 6-year-long hiatus from the world of gags, let’s take a look at what he said about the problems with Netflix specials.

Joe Rogan once revealed the problems comedians face with Netflix

Without a doubt, the realm of laughter has become a tough place to compete in with a steady rise in entertainment pieces that demand one’s attention. In order to stand out in such a competitive world, one indeed has to go above and beyond. Earlier in April 2024, Rogan and a fellow comedian, Neal Brennan, sat together and discussed the shortcomings of Netflix specials on episode #2135 of the Joe Rogan Experience. 

As the conversation between the two comedians proceeded, Brennan stumbled upon the changes that he had to do for his Netflix special. He pointed out that in a live event, he didn’t have to plan on shortening his jokes, instead he was able to build up gags. To this, Rogan replied, “You’re just formatting it for this very specific system, as opposed to a live show, where you’re like setting things up and-” And Brennan completed the sentence saying that in a live show, the audience simply couldn’t go anywhere. They indeed wanted to be present in the room while the comic extracted laughs.

But in case of a Netflix show, the audience have multiple options to choose from. The JRE guest said, “At home, they can watch everything ever recorded. I’m competing with everything that’s ever been made. The Godfather. Can I beat, is this better than The Godfather?” Rogan and Brennan kept on adding names that they were competing against. ‘Apocalypse Now,’ ‘Rocky,’ and even well-established artists like Ari Shaffir and Norm MacDonald. 

Weighing in on this, the owner of ‘Comedy Mothership’ voiced, “Everything. All the old stuff, all the new stuff, everything altogether. It’s an insane time for your attention. Like try to captivate people’s attention now. It’s just, it’s an insane proposition. There’s just so much available.” 

Despite the shortcomings of the online streaming platform, Rogan’s videos were quite successful. Now, let’s shift our focus to the 56-year-old podcaster’s upcoming special.

The JRE host is coming back to Netflix

Not too long ago, the UFC color commentator took to Instagram and teased the fans about his upcoming Netflix special. He wrote, “Saturday, August 3rd I’m doing a live comedy special on @netflix at 10 pm East Coast Time. I’m very pumped for this and I hope you enjoy it.” ‘Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats’ is going to be his first ever show that he will shoot live for Netflix.

As impressive as it may sound, the podcaster-cum-comedian has faced quite a bit of lashout from the fans. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rogan faced some trouble with Spotify and the cancel culture. Despite the challenges, he emerged with a comedy club in Texas that boomed up pretty soon. And now, with another special show added to his resume, the comedian will surely extract shiploads of gags.

Do you agree with Rogan and Brennan about the challenges with Netflix specials? What do you prefer, watching stand-up live or on OTT? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.