#2488 - James McCann

**Joe Rogan** (0:03)
The Joe Rogan Experience.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:06)
Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

**James McCann** (0:12)
Everything's good, thank you for having me back.

**Joe Rogan** (0:14)
Good to see you, my brother.

**James McCann** (0:15)
How are you?

**Joe Rogan** (0:16)
Always great to see you.
I'm good. It was fun having you at the Club Mouse.

**James McCann** (0:21)
I was terrified, I was fucking terrified.

**Joe Rogan** (0:22)
You just looked like you were back.

**James McCann** (0:24)
No, I thought, I thought, that's it. I've been away for too long. I'm gonna suck, none of the new stuff's gonna work. They'll see me, they'll go, he was wrong to come back. Fuck him off.
It was so nice, it was so nice.

**Joe Rogan** (0:35)
You were telling the story, I said, hold these thoughts.

**James McCann** (0:37)
Yeah, I didn't know we'd never spoken about it.

**Joe Rogan** (0:40)
No, tell me the story.

**James McCann** (0:42)
That's why I came to America to start, is I got off at a job hosting a Catholic podcast, and they fired me as, I packed up everything in Adelaide. This is like two and a bit years ago, I had the kids and the wife, and on the way to America I got fired, and they said, we'll still pay you rent.
It's in Steubenville, Ohio, beautiful Appalachian town, just outside of Pittsburgh, and yeah, it's where we were three months, I was there.

**Joe Rogan** (1:07)
So what did they see that they fired you for?

**James McCann** (1:10)
A lot. They made a compilation video.
The guy who showed, they were right to fire me.

**Joe Rogan** (1:15)
No, no they weren't.

**James McCann** (1:17)
Because it was a good clean Catholic podcast, and then the business manager was like, there was a sketch about stabbing someone in the throat with an AIDS needle. They're like, he uses the word cunt all the time. I was like, this is a sponsorship nightmare. Get him out. So I say, okay, but they still said, we'll pay you rent for three months, and you can figure something out. You still got a visa.
And I was terrified. I was just in the snow.

**Joe Rogan** (1:40)
With kids and a wife.

**James McCann** (1:41)
Three kids, no job. I didn't have the money to go back home.

**Joe Rogan** (1:43)
Oh my God.

**James McCann** (1:44)
We couldn't afford to go back home. And I didn't know that I had been passed at the mothership, because I didn't know how the system worked. So on the way in to go to Steubenville, where I was like, I'll figure something out, I stopped in at Austin to see Shane. Shane said, go and do the mothership, open mic. I did it. Adam Meagher said, if you're ever in town, come back, we'll pay for sports. I didn't know that meant I was passed. I didn't know I could work here.
I just thought he was like, I could audition again. And then, so I had three confronting months in the snow.
Beautiful part of the world. It was the most terrified I've ever been in my life.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:19)
He says that as an Australian, from Ohio. He said that's the most beautiful part of the world.

**James McCann** (2:24)
I loved it. I went back and watched that Wild Whites of West Virginia.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:26)
Yeah, that's where you're at.

**James McCann** (2:27)
It looks exactly like that.

**Joe Rogan** (2:29)
Well, that area is gorgeous.

**James McCann** (2:30)
It's, I was God's country, but also so abandoned by like, the potholes are crazy.
I saw real heroin addicts. I'd never really seen heroin addicts before. Just sleepy people. I saw street prostitutes. That's still going on.

**Joe Rogan** (2:47)
And this is a small town, right?

**James McCann** (2:49)
This is a small town. This is a...
I went there. Catholics have moved there to try and like, fix it. It was where Dean Martin was from. The Wu-Tang Clan kind of started out there.

**Joe Rogan** (2:59)
They're starting out.

**James McCann** (3:00)
No, yes. But I think it's like the Riz's auntie lived there, and they moved out there, and then they got involved in rap in the Pittsburgh.

**Joe Rogan** (3:08)
I got to ask, Riz is on real soon.

**James McCann** (3:10)
I believe I'm right about that. They don't have a mural for them. But it's great.
Yeah, there's a lot of Catholic content creators there. And they're trying to take over town. I went there originally because New Polity is my favorite magazine, and I got to meet the guys who made it, and I was so excited.