Joe Rogan Experience #2480 - Arsenio Hall

Two comedians who came up through Mitzi Shore's Comedy Store reminisce about the craft of stand-up, the discipline of writing and bombing, and mentors like Richard Pryor and Paul Mooney. Arsenio recounts breaking the late-night mold by ditching the desk, booking Tupac, Ice-T and Prince, and walking away from the format on his own terms. The talk roams across drugs and sleep (creatine, weed, Adderall, Ambien, cocaine), the death of network late-night and the rise of long-form podcasts, and personal stories about Prince, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis and O.J. Simpson. They close on shared disgust with money in politics, the homelessness crisis, and why both prefer a scaled-down, freer life.

• Joe admits he muddled the Charlie Kirk/Charlie Sheen timeline on a recent Theo Von episode, blaming sleep deprivation, not lying.
  00:05:43
• Joe says he has never once tried cocaine because he watched a high-school friend's life fall apart on it.
  00:15:02
• Arsenio recounts Richard Pryor visiting his empty condo and saying 'This reminds me of when I was happy.'
  00:27:32
• Arsenio reveals network execs told him they wanted the show 'less black' and pushed him to drop the music and house band.
  00:38:00
• Arsenio says executives basically wanted him to 'do Joe Rogan before there was a Joe Rogan' because just talking was cheaper.
  01:12:13
• Arsenio tells how Prince mailed him a custom black-and-white suit with no backside as a joke after Arsenio ribbed him on air.
  01:23:05
• Arsenio recounts O.J. Simpson showing up at Paramount's Stage 29 wanting to confront him for not booking him.
  02:46:28
• Arsenio says a drunk O.J. told him about Nicole, 'I still love her. I've tried to give her up and I can't' shortly before her death.
  02:49:33

• Joe claims studies show 10-20g of creatine alleviates the cognitive effects of sleep deprivation.
  00:08:17
• Paul Anka wrote the theme music for The Tonight Show.
  00:36:26
• Clinton playing saxophone on Arsenio's show as a candidate is credited with changing how people run for president.
  00:36:56
• Ice-T's Cop Killer was performed by his metal band Body Count, a fact many fans forget.
  01:15:21
• Prince attached his Musicology album to concert tickets so every ticket sale counted as an album sale, instantly going platinum.
  01:21:29
• Charlie Murphy's famous Chappelle's Show stories described Prince as a genuinely great basketball player.
  01:27:11
• Quincy Jones used Sheila E tinging water-filled pop bottles as a sound layer on Michael Jackson's Off the Wall.
  02:27:13
• Quincy Jones discovered singer James Ingram, an Ohio native, via a demo scratch track of 'One Hundred Ways.'
  02:28:49
• Byron Allen's 'Comics Unleashed' was announced as the replacement for Colbert's Late Show.
  02:33:00
• Joe describes how problem populations were historically pushed into downtown LA, creating the 50-block Skid Row.
  02:42:21

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