#1004 - W. Kamau Bell

Joe Rogan (0:02)

Four, three, two, one.

Yes, and we're live. I always wonder, when I see a dude with an Android, I'm like, oh, you're on that team. Like, people get so into teams, right? You get so into, like, groups that you belong to, like, oh, he's an Android guy.

W. Kamau Bell (0:23)

Yeah, what does that mean about him?

Joe Rogan (0:26)

Maybe he uses a Windows phone. Maybe he's a contrarian.

Hari Kondobolu (0:31)

Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to be outside the box.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Yeah, he's got a Henry Rollins for president shirt on.

Hari Kondobolu (0:34)

Yeah, I can't pay this guy down. What's he trying to do?

Joe Rogan (0:36)

Does Henry Rollins really run for president?

W. Kamau Bell (0:39)

I don't even know if Henry Rollins gets a part of this merchandise.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

Most likely not.

W. Kamau Bell (0:43)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel a little bit bad about that.

Joe Rogan (0:45)

Yeah, I don't think he gives a shit.

W. Kamau Bell (0:47)

No, I don't think he gives a shit, but I did buy it sort of excitedly and then had a moment of like, wait a minute, so, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:52)

Yeah, I don't even think he probably knows.

W. Kamau Bell (0:54)

No, I would imagine he may, maybe he'll find out now, but yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:58)

How much have you paid attention to that guy?

W. Kamau Bell (0:59)

I'm a big fan of Henry Rollins. I've been like, Henry Rollins is one of the, I've said this before, one of the, like his music gave me the courage to start doing stand up.

Joe Rogan (1:06)

Really?

W. Kamau Bell (1:07)

Absolutely. Wow. I used to go to his spoken word shows.

I'm all in on Henry Rollins.

Joe Rogan (1:11)

Wow. Did you hear his podcast with Ari Shafir?

W. Kamau Bell (1:15)

No, I haven't heard that.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

Dude, you gotta listen to it.

He and Ari met at Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival, and they were talking about travel. Henry just picks a spot on the map.

W. Kamau Bell (1:27)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:29)

He goes, okay, Myanmar, let's do this. And he has his travel agent organize it. He doesn't go with anybody. He goes by himself.

W. Kamau Bell (1:36)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:36)

Brings a laptop and a camera and some clothes.

W. Kamau Bell (1:39)

When I actually met him, I've been to a couple of times, but when I really met him, finally he came to my book tour in LA with his assistant, Heidi. And he was going on a trip the next day.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

Can't say assistant. She gets pissed. She's his manager.

W. Kamau Bell (1:50)

His manager, okay.

Joe Rogan (1:51)

She got pissed when she was here. She's like, someone called me the assistant.

W. Kamau Bell (1:56)

I wasn't that guy. I mean, as a person who has an assistant, it's not really a good word. It makes it sound like you're saying, like, you know, it doesn't sound, what the person does is they keep your shit organized from start to start.

Yeah, yeah. So his manager, Heidi, was there. And he was leaving the next day and he didn't know where he was going. She told him, you need to get out of town. I'm tired of you.

He was like, yeah, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know where I'm going.

Joe Rogan (2:18)

He does it all the time. And he just writes. He goes there and he writes.

W. Kamau Bell (2:22)

I mean, he's living the life that, as an artist, I would like to live if I wasn't married with two kids. So I've always lived, even before I was married with two kids, like I can't live that life. But yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

Yeah. I can't do that either. But he does it. Well, Ari Shafir said, all right, motherfucker, you think that's strong? I'm going to go for four months.

So Ari went for four months all throughout Asia. He brought no phone, no laptop, no nothing, completely lost contact with everybody. Didn't talk to anybody he knew. No agent, no manager. Told them all, I'm gone for like three months. And he wound up being four.

W. Kamau Bell (2:53)

Was he lost for the last month?

Joe Rogan (2:54)

I can't get back. He just decided not to come back yet. He just did whatever he wanted. I mean, he has his Comedy Central show. And then he just decided, look, I'm going to take some time off, and I'm just going to go.