#1082 - Greg Fitzsimmons

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:01)

Doo doo.

Joe Rogan (0:05)

Another episode of the Richard Jennings Fan Club.

He's a guy that I've been telling forever, is probably the most underrated stand up in the history of stand up. I think he's like one of the all time grades.

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:14)

And he's got a body of work because he did a one hour, back before everybody was doing one hour specials every year, he was doing that shit back in the 90s.

Joe Rogan (0:21)

Oh yeah, on Showtime, Showtime, every year. Like when I was just starting out, so I think it was like 89 or 90, somewhere around the way, he had a Showtime special.

And then he had a bunch of HBO, yep, he had a bunch of HBO specials, but the last one that he did before he died in 2007, that is his masterpiece.

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:43)

Really?

Joe Rogan (0:43)

Yeah, it's called Steaming Pile of Me. And I was listening to it one night, coming home from a club, and just laughing out loud in the car and clapping, clapping in the car like, god damn, this guy was good.

Greg Fitzsimmons (0:57)

Yeah, what a pro. He was so good.

I mean, he was one of those guys that dressed, he put on a sharp outfit, pleated pants, really fucking corny, like 90s looking, the collar with no, the rounded priest collar shirts.

Joe Rogan (1:12)

He was from Bensonhurst.

Greg Fitzsimmons (1:14)

Oh, is that right?

Joe Rogan (1:15)

Yeah, yeah, it's the old school Guinea mentality from Brooklyn.

Greg Fitzsimmons (1:19)

Yeah, and he would give you, I can remember like at least three times, he would call me an hour after my set and give me taglines to bits. Wow. Yeah.

And they were fucking good.

Joe Rogan (1:33)

He was almost like on the spectrum with that.

Greg Fitzsimmons (1:35)

Yeah, totally. He wouldn't look you in the eye. He'd be like looking down and he'd go really fast and talk with his hands.

And I think he, obviously, if people don't know Richard Jenney, sadly committed suicide in the end. And what was tough for him was that he was that good and he never really broke through. He had a sitcom, short-lived sitcom called Platypus Man that was on like one of those-

And after that, it was like he was the guy who used to fill up his book in January. He was on the road 45 weeks a year and making 100 grand on corporate dates, 50 grand on corporate dates with 15 of those a year.

Joe Rogan (2:20)

Yeah, I'm sure he was living well, but he didn't enjoy it.

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:22)

But he felt like a failure.

Joe Rogan (2:23)

Yeah. And to us, he was a hero.

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:26)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:27)

Like, I remember seeing him at Eastside Comedy Club in New York, and it was me and Joey Cola and a couple other guys.

I only saw one set, but god, I forget who the host was. But the host said he did a different hour, all four shows.

Greg Fitzsimmons (2:45)

No shit.

Joe Rogan (2:46)

And I went, what?

I was so humbled, because I was like, I don't even have, I had 20 minutes back then. I was like, what?

How did he do that? How can he do that? And they were like, he's the best. But it was a weird thing. It's like, he came along before Netflix, because if he was around today and people got to see his Netflix special, it's just one of those things that would have caught on. But in the HBO specials, you're either the home when it aired or you weren't. There was no DVRs back then. Maybe, maybe you set up the VHS tape to record. Maybe.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:21)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:22)

I could never figure out how to fucking get that thing to record when I wasn't there.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:26)

Oh no, I couldn't do that. No.

The timer, you'd end up recording like Days of Our Lives or something.

Joe Rogan (3:32)

Yeah, fucking Golden Girls.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:34)

Bunch of old twats being written. It was a bunch of old women and the scripts are written by old Jewish guys.

You know, all menopause jokes.

Joe Rogan (3:44)

He's one of the saddest cases to me because I just don't think that, I don't know how many friends he had in comedy. I know he's really good friends with Chris Rock.

Greg Fitzsimmons (3:53)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (3:53)

And he worked with Chris a lot. He was a punch up guy for Chris a lot.

But I don't know if anybody was there to just be his, I think that's a big thing for us because we're so, I think comics are some of the weirdest fucking people, but I gravitate towards them. Like I've always said, if I run into a comic at the airport, I'm like, oh, look, it's one of us. You know, we're weird.