#1016 - Whitney Cummings

Whitney Cummings (0:02)

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What's happening? Are we going?

Jamie Vernon (0:07)

We're live!

SPEAKER_3 (0:08)

Oh god, this is so stressful.

Joe Rogan (0:09)

Why do you need scare tactics?

Whitney Cummings (0:11)

Because it takes me so much, so many threats and so much pain to change my habits.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

But you're so self-examinatory. That's not the right word.

Whitney Cummings (0:23)

That's called neurotic. That's a very nice synonym for it, thank you.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

If you were not getting anything done, I would agree with you.

Whitney Cummings (0:30)

Oh, interesting. It's not paralyzing.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Yeah.

Whitney Cummings (0:33)

I do, I come from such a dysfunctional, not even the word, I feel like that's lost its value. I come from a very sick family and I'm very determined to not be sick.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

Right.

Whitney Cummings (0:45)

So I'm trying hard to...

Joe Rogan (0:46)

But you get a lot of shit done. See, I don't agree with this, like the idea of paralyzing. It may hinder in some way, shape, or form or cause obstacles, but you maneuver around those obstacles.

So I don't agree with you.

Whitney Cummings (0:59)

It's tricky. I mean, how do you... I definitely would identify as self-analytical, but like, do you think that's part of being a good comedian is being able to analyze yourself and your neuroses?

Joe Rogan (1:09)

Yeah, for sure. If you can't see yourself, it's gonna be super hard to get other people to relate to you. Cause if there's some obvious blind spots that they see that you're not addressing.

Whitney Cummings (1:20)

It's my nightmare to not be self-aware and have everybody know something about me that I don't know.

I am like in constant paranoia. I mean, and we know people who don't know themselves and who can't see themselves. And it seems real. It terrifies me.

Joe Rogan (1:32)

Well, that's what bothers us about those people. It's not necessarily that those people are that annoying. What it is, is we're terrified of seeing that in ourselves.

Whitney Cummings (1:38)

100%. Because the antithesis of a comedian is somebody who can't see the truth and can't look in a mirror. And like, that's my nightmare.

Joe Rogan (1:45)

Well, I think we all know, and I think anybody knows is trying to do anything. Whatever you're trying to do. Whether you're trying to start a business or write a book or what you just did. Ha.

Whatever you're doin, whatever you're doing, it's gonna be, it's gonna test you. It's going to be difficult.

No one is gonna get through it at all in one incredibly smooth linear process. It's gonna be weird shit that happens on the way. And when you see someone who's not doing it correctly in your eyes or not doing it to the best of their abilities or fucking off or being delusional, it scares the shit out of ya. Because you're like, God damn it, that could be me. God damn it, I could lose a year of everything I've been concentrating on. To, like, deny...

Whitney Cummings (2:25)

I lived in denial, I think, for a long time, and I was sort of, like, sleepwalking through life and kind of, like, unconscious, I think, for, like, a lot of my teens and early 20s due to, like, some fucked up shit that I saw and lived, and it was all survival mechanisms, but I just always want to make sure that I've disarmed those and dethawed those and am not, like, just being a puppet of my fear.

Joe Rogan (2:47)

Right, but I think, like, to give you more credit than you give yourself, I think that that self-examatory, self-reflecting aspect of it, which seems to you to, like, this be as constant self-criticism, is just almost like a watcher, like a watcher over your thoughts, to make sure, okay, keep this fucking thing together, you crazy bitch, come on, here we go. But along the way, look all the things you've accomplished. See, like, I don't think you've been, I mean, you haven't been impeded by it as much as you've been aware of it.

Whitney Cummings (3:18)

Yeah, that's the idea. And I definitely think I need to stop. We live in this world of constant feedback.

And I guess my thing is, like, I give myself enough feedback, I don't also need your feedback with the likes and the replies and the trolls and the reddits and the whatever. So I think that that magnified it a little bit. And I had to do, like, a little bit of a social media internet cleansing, where I didn't sort of constantly go down the wormhole of, like, people trashing and being negative.