#848 - Bryan Callen

Joe Rogan (0:00)

Two, one, Bryan Callen.

Bryan Callen (0:03)

Yes. Terrorist survivor. I'm wearing a sky blue shirt. Please.

Joe Rogan (0:07)

If I call you a terrorist survivor, how much hate do you think I'll get? It seems like a nice green light for people to get upset for no reason.

Bryan Callen (0:13)

Well, you know, I think that everybody wants to be, if you've not been affected by it, but you were there, you want somehow credit.

Like I found myself, I was 800 feet exactly away from the blast because I was at the Gotham Comedy Club, 208 I think West 23rd and the bomb was at 133

Joe Rogan (0:33)

It's hard for me to think of how big 800 feet is.

Bryan Callen (0:36)

So like when I'm on my half a block, if you look it on, if you actually close. Yeah. If you look it on your Google Maps, it's a half a block.

Joe Rogan (0:43)

And so you were about to go on stage.

Bryan Callen (0:45)

I was about to go on stage and I was with Jimmy Burke, the national treasure that is Jimmy Burke.

Of course you do. Who doesn't?

And we were talking in front of the club. So I was literally right behind the front door. And in the Gotham Climbing Club, you have to walk all the way down and go in to the room. So probably about 25 yards. So I'm literally on the street, but with the door in front of us and we just hear, boom, boom. And that sickening sound when you know it's a bomb, you know it's not a manhole cover. You know what I mean? You just know it's just too loud.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

I don't think I've ever heard a bomb.

Bryan Callen (1:18)

It's horrifying. And it was 800 feet away.

Joe Rogan (1:20)

You heard a bomb before that? Well, you did when you were a kid, right?

Bryan Callen (1:23)

I did because I lived in Lebanon.

Joe Rogan (1:24)

Right.

Bryan Callen (1:24)

Right. So I had, in fact, I remember going back to Lebanon. I can't remember the year, but they shot a missile. It was a test fire, a missile over our head on the beach. I will never forget this.

It was so loud that we fell down on the ground. We were on the beach. It was so loud.

I don't know if that was because it was shot over our heads in the sonic boom, but we fell down. And it was either a shell or something, but I remember, and you don't see it, though. You don't see the, you know, the shell.

Joe Rogan (1:53)

Because it's going so fast.

Bryan Callen (1:54)

Yes. But what you do is you hear this insanely loud noise, and I remember looking around, and everybody fell down, and I fell down.

You know how, it's not even like a fall down. You are, it's like you lose your balance, and you're reaching for something to hold onto, but then you go down on your hands and knees. It was a really strange thing. So, and I remember being a kid in Lebanon and seeing planes bomb a gas station from the balcony, and then we had to go downstairs and sleep in the garage. But, so I heard loud noises as a kid, very loud noises, but this, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm not a seasoned terrorism expert here, you know, experiencer, and I don't think anybody is. And it certainly wasn't, think about this. This was a pressure cooker. This was not a car bomb.

And that was 800 feet away, which is how many football fields?

Joe Rogan (2:43)

Explain, because it was the same sort of bomb they used in the Boston Marathon bombings a few years ago. Same kind of thing. And I believe it was hooked up to a cell phone.

Bryan Callen (2:51)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:52)

I believe that's how it was activated, through a cell phone.

Bryan Callen (2:54)

Yeah. And when that thing went off, you just knew it was a bomb. And the crazy thing, the sickening thing was before that, they said, you got four minutes. He's coming off in four minutes.

And I ended up, we were in the front there and Jimmy and I were talking. And I said, no problem. And this bomb goes off. And I said to Jimmy, I go, that was a bomb.

And he goes, yes, it was.

And we go outside and I see smoke and it's quiet, because there's this pause before the storm. And it just, I saw smoke and you could smell this sort of like a burning thing. It smelled like smoke quickly. And then instead of people running toward you and screaming, they were jogging. New Yorkers, like, ah, the fuck, man, come on, that's right. And they were jogging. So your instinct is to go toward the blast, make sure everybody's okay. But the sick thing is-