#1431 - Owen Smith

Owen Smith (0:00)

It is? Yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:01)

Three, two, one, boom, and we're live.

We're talking about yoga and Russell Simmons. Russell Simmons, he moved to Bali because he's worried about them extraditing him?

SPEAKER_3 (0:09)

I don't know if he's worried, but I...

Owen Smith (0:12)

And this is all conjecture, this is what I've heard. But I just bought him up because...

SPEAKER_3 (0:19)

He had a yoga studio here.

Joe Rogan (0:20)

Did he?

Owen Smith (0:21)

Yeah. And he gave me a month free.

A month free, high-end yoga thing, like you just show up in your clothes. They give you the mat, towels, blocks, everything. Everybody was awesome. And I went every day for a month and did yoga next to Russell Simmons. And he was like amazing. And I was like really feeling it. I felt great.

And then all the stuff happened.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

It's so easy to slide. It's so easy to slide away.

Owen Smith (0:55)

Yeah, man. I love that guy, Dealer. I have a funny story. What do you think is more important than stand up?

To be polished or to be raw?

Joe Rogan (1:06)

There's no more important thing.

They're both very important. But Joey Diaz is not polished at all, and he's the funniest guy that I've ever seen.

No one's ever made me laugh harder. He's not polished. He's raw as fuck. But raw alone is not good, because some guys like Jessel Neck is very polished, and he's very funny. You're very polished. You're very funny.

Owen Smith (1:28)

Yes.

Joe Rogan (1:29)

There's no one thing. You know, it's like comedy is an art.

Owen Smith (1:33)

It's an art, right?

Joe Rogan (1:34)

It's an expression of who you are. If you're a polished person and you try to come off raw, it's going to look corny.

Owen Smith (1:40)

So I bought that up because I am, I don't know, young 20s. Def Jam is having auditions. It just moved from New York to LA, and Beverly Hills was where they're taping, which was ironic in itself.

But I was raw.

You remember those when you go hit at DJ and you have music queue. So I auditioned and Bushwick Bill was one of the judges. I auditioned at All Jokes Aside in Chicago, and I got picked. I was one of the people to get picked to tape Def Jam. First time I was ever flown out anywhere. First time I ever was flown to Los Angeles. I had been here before, stayed at the Hotel Sofitel. But what happened is I got picked. I was raw. About three months went by, I went on a tour of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minneapolis, where none of those Def Jam jokes worked.

So I started getting polished a little bit. So, when I went to tape Def Jam, I did it, and I got, I think, seven applause breaks. But I didn't get the standing ovation. And I remember when I got off stage, one comedian said, way to keep them seated. And Russell walked right past me, I just wanted him to see me. So I knew I wasn't going to air, right? And I got...

Joe Rogan (3:07)

Wait a minute, you got seven applause breaks and it wouldn't air?

Owen Smith (3:12)

Well, I got a note, I got my first rejection letter saying, thank you so much, but you won't be airing. They aired Rodman, and they aired two other people.

And then, so I felt like shit, you know what I mean? Like, I was like, damn, am I black enough? Like the whole black thing. Like, damn, I'm not a part of Def Jam, I want to be touring, I can make those audiences laugh. But what I auditioned with, it was straight from Maryland, like straight, just raw, like all bravado, I wasn't talking about anything. And I went to these other cities, and it was kind of like, I was kind of like finding my style, right?

Joe Rogan (3:49)

How many years have you been doing it at the time?

Owen Smith (3:51)

I was probably doing, I started at 19, but I, you know, that's the college start. And then you, but I think I started doing it full time at 22, and I was probably 26, so maybe four years.

Arrogant, though. Like, you know, if I was your feature act, I knew, I always kept a time clock. Sometimes I would go long, but I would, but I was, I was very proud of, like, if they said do 12, I would do 12, you know what I mean, that kind of thing.

And I was, I was getting standing ovations, but I wasn't talking about nothing. And then I started, like, doing these other states, and I was like, okay, fine. Don't get, don't get it. So my objection, I really needed Russell Simmons to like me, like, you know what I mean? I mean, he meant so much to the culture and to, and he just, when he just didn't see me, I just was like, damn, years go by.