#2034 - Jeremy Jones

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience. Jeremy Jones, what's happening, baby?

Jeremy Jones (0:15)

We finally did this. Trying to run out.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

Yeah, man, playing you is a very humbling experience. I should tell everybody Jeremy Jones, professional pool player, the team captain of the Moscone Cup, which is the most prestigious international team tournament in all the world of pool.

But what I really enjoyed about talking with you for the last couple of days is you're just, you're a very smart guy, very interesting guy. There's a lot of, you know, like a lot of interest in all kinds of different things. You're a very fascinating guy. That's why you're so good at commentary.

Jeremy Jones (0:46)

Yeah, I guess so. Maybe just growing up watching all that stuff. And I think my parents, you know, they had pretty vast interest, even though maybe didn't afford it all the time to be able to, you know, kind of go with it. But yeah, number five of six kids, you learn a lot of stuff.

Joe Rogan (1:00)

Well, it's just always been fascinating to me. The people that are really good at pool are some of the fucking smartest people I've ever met in my life.

There's just, they just got that bug. They got that bug to chase this one thing, geometry and pockets and balls and collisions. And they got that bug to chase it. But some of the best players that I've talked to, they're some of the smartest people I've ever met.

Jeremy Jones (1:23)

Oh, absolutely. I mean, that just tells you about the game, right? How much there is to it. And yeah, I mean, it's just, it grabs you. And if you're watching, paying attention to what goes on, it's like hardly ever the same thing. You don't realize how much control you have. I thought Poole was kind of like a game he played waiting on a bowling alley lane, prior to playing it. I didn't know you could play it well. I didn't know you could play it for a living.

There's movies out there and stuff, but I mean, it just didn't seem real.

Joe Rogan (1:51)

When you, how old were you when you first started playing?

Jeremy Jones (1:55)

Really playing 17 I was 17 years old, yeah, I started late.

Joe Rogan (1:59)

Yeah, I started really late. I was 25, I think.

Somewhere around 24, 24 or 25 Yeah.

Jeremy Jones (2:07)

Yeah, I worked two jobs, and one of them, we'd have a few beers on the weekends at a pizza restaurant, play poker with our money, our tip money. And one of the guys would go to the game room and play pool.

And he took me down there one day and kind of hustled me a little bit. You know, we kind of knew each other like that. And the only thing I wanted to do was be able to beat him, Joe. That's like, that's what I wanted to do. Yeah, and that's so I quit one of the jobs. I quit the pizza restaurant, went and got a job at the game room so I could play for free.

And, you know, kind of the rest is history from there.

Joe Rogan (2:39)

Wow. It's a game that just sucks you in. I remember I used to go and play with my friend, John, and we would go to this place, Executive Billiards in White Plains.

And when we got there, you know, it was an interesting time because there was a lot of gambling going on in that place. And the guy, the owner was a wild man. The owner of the pool hall was this really eccentric musician.

Yeah, his name was Guy Azzariti, but he would use the name Guy Hamilton when he performed. He was this musician, like a piano player, like a really good musician. And he had some money from his career as a piano player, and he was really in a pool. He loved the culture of it. And so he was the owner of this joint. And we were all just hanging out with him, having fun, and I would go there, and it would be filled with people gambling. And I was like, this place is wild. And then I was watching really good players play when I was just starting out, didn't know what I was doing. And I was like, that looks so different than anybody else I've ever seen play pool. Like, the way they hit the ball is so soft, and they're in such control. And you're watching the ball spin off the cushions and get perfect on the next ball, and everybody's, like, shaking their head.