#1585 - Michael Kosta

Joe Rogan (0:16)

His unwillingness to make money off of it, too, is interesting.

Yeah. Signal is, you know, whenever someone new signs up at Signal, you get like this notification.

Michael Kosta (0:27)

I noticed that.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Yeah. And so it's like flooding with all these people that I know that are now on Signal.

Michael Kosta (0:33)

It's gotten us, me, to re-evaluate privacy and everything. You know, like what is on my phone? What are these?

When you go to the thing on the iPhone that says, you can use my location always or while using, it's crazy how many apps are just using your location.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

Oh, yeah. Well, what's going to change, by the way, this is Michael Kosta, ladies and gentlemen. We're already rolling.

Michael Kosta (0:56)

Great.

Joe Rogan (0:57)

Michael Kosta, you might know him from The Daily Show. He's also a fabulous stand-up comedian. I know him from The Comedy Store. Please welcome Michael Kosta.

Michael Kosta (1:04)

Thank you for having me, man.

Joe Rogan (1:05)

My pleasure, brother.

Michael Kosta (1:05)

This has been an exciting highlight for me to be sitting here with you and be on your podcast. I can't believe what this thing has become, man.

Joe Rogan (1:13)

Bizarre.

Michael Kosta (1:14)

It must be crazy just for you.

Joe Rogan (1:15)

Well, this is what's bizarre about it.

It seems like it's just you and me talking. Yeah.

Michael Kosta (1:20)

Well, it is just me and you talking. But I mean, how many years have you been doing?

Joe Rogan (1:25)

11

Michael Kosta (1:25)

11 years.

Joe Rogan (1:26)

11 Started in 2009

Michael Kosta (1:28)

It's...

As a younger-than-you comic, you look to the comics older than you, and you say, who is doing what I want or creating something special that's unique to them? And that's what I always try to just try to do. And then this, to see what you've made, this is nuts.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

Oh, thank you.

Michael Kosta (1:48)

It's nuts.

Joe Rogan (1:49)

Just dumb luck. Dumb luck and persistence.

Michael Kosta (1:52)

That's it.

Joe Rogan (1:52)

That's a lot of it, legitimately. Tell everybody. Dumb luck and persistence. And just working at it, you know.

Conversations, there's a skill to it. It doesn't seem like there's a skill to it, but there's a skill to it.

You realize, after you do a lot of podcasts, too, how bad a lot of people are, just regular folks are, at having conversations. You see people just talking over each other. You're like, Jesus, will you let him finish and then you let her finish? Like fucking, you guys just talk. You just collide.

Michael Kosta (2:21)

Some of the worst conversations I've ever had in my life are at that front bar at the comedy store because it's always like the weirdest comics talking at you, never listening to your thing.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

Right.

Michael Kosta (2:32)

And I would get so frustrated. Growing up, my mom would do this game called the Tennis Ball Game where we were very young and she would ask us a question. She would say, Hey, Michael, how was school today? And she would hand me the ball or toss me the ball. And then you had to answer and you couldn't give her the ball back until you asked her a question.

And this is like, you know, we're like six. So I would say today was good. And then I would try to hand the ball back. And she would say, You can't hand me the ball back. You didn't ask me anything. I'd say, Do you like the weather today? And I'd hand it to her. And she would like trained us like zoo animals to do this.

But it is funny because so much of my life now, what you mentioned earlier, no one knows how to talk.

Joe Rogan (3:09)

No, no, I have a very good friend and she's very smart.

But her and her husband just talk louder over each other and they don't listen. And then one of them will walk off into the kitchen. You're like, what in the fuck? And if I had tried to have a conversation with them, if I'm in the middle of saying, well, I wonder if what it is. They just start talking.

Like they don't let anybody talk. They just talk at you.

Michael Kosta (3:35)

Was your home like a long form conversation home?

Joe Rogan (3:39)

I don't know.

Michael Kosta (3:40)

Why do you feel comfortable?

Joe Rogan (3:42)

Definitely marijuana.

Long stoner conversations. I don't know, man. I used to do morning radio and I used to look forward to it in some markets. I think morning radio is like 8 out of 10 They're just cool people that happen to be on the morning radio. But then there's like the 2 out of 10 are people that wish they were comics. Oh my God. You know those.