1988–1994: Early stand-up career Rogan had no intention of being a professional comedian. he performed his first stand-up routine on August 27, 1988, at an open-mic night at a Stitches comedy club in Boston. While living in Boston and working on his stand-up, Rogan held several jobs to secure himself financially. These jobs included teaching martial arts at
Boston University and in nearby
Revere, delivering newspapers, driving a limousine, doing construction work, and assisting a
private investigator. Rogan later cited
Richard Jeni,
Lenny Bruce,
Sam Kinison and
Bill Hicks as comedy influences. The role was originally set to be played by actor
Ray Romano, but Romano was let go from the cast after one rehearsal and Rogan was brought in. The switch caused Rogan to work with the show's writers to help develop the character before the show was set to launch, which he later described as a "very dumbed-down, censored version" of himself. The loss affected Rogan's ability to perform stand-up, and he canceled a week of scheduled gigs. Rogan later saw acting as an easy job, but grew tired of "playing the same character every week", and only did so for the money. He later viewed his time on
NewsRadio as "a dream gig" that allowed him to earn money while working on his stand-up as often as he could. He became interested in
Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1994 after watching
Royce Gracie fight at
UFC 2: No Way Out, and landed the position at the organization as Sussman was friends with its co-creator and original producer,
Campbell McLaren. After the UFC was taken over by
Zuffa in 2001, Rogan attended some events and became friends with its new president
Dana White, who offered him a job as a
color commentator. However, Rogan initially declined as he "just wanted to go to the fights and drink". In 1999, Rogan secured a three-album deal with
Warner Bros. Records and began tentative plans to star in his own prime-time televised sitcom on Fox named
The Joe Rogan Show. The show, co-written by
Seinfeld writer Bill Masters, was to feature Rogan as "a second-string sportscaster who lands a spot as the token male on a
View-style women's show". In December 1999, he recorded his first stand-up comedy album in two shows at the Comedy Connection at
Faneuil Hall in Boston, which was released as ''I'm Gonna Be Dead Some Day...'' in August 2000. "Voodoo Punanny", a song Rogan wrote after Warner suggested to produce a song they could play on the radio, was subsequently released as a single. Around this time, Rogan also worked on ideas for a film and a cartoon with his comedian friend Chris McGuire, The show increased Rogan's national exposure which caused turnouts at his stand-up gigs to grow.
Fear Factor ran for an initial six seasons from 2001 to 2006. Rogan's role as host of
Fear Factor led to further television opportunities. In 2002, he appeared on the episode "A Beautiful Mind" of
Just Shoot Me as Chris, the boyfriend of lead character Maya Gallo. In December 2002, Rogan was the emcee for the 2002 Blockbuster Hollywood Spectacular, a Christmas parade in Hollywood. In February 2003, Rogan became the new co-host of
The Man Show on
Comedy Central for its fifth season from August 2003, with fellow comedian
Doug Stanhope, following the departure of original hosts
Jimmy Kimmel and
Adam Carolla. A year into the show, however, the hosts entered disagreements with Comedy Central and the show's producers over content. Rogan recalled: "I was a little misled ... I was told: 'Show nudity, and we'll blur it out. Swear and we'll bleep it out.' That hasn't been the case". The show ended in 2004. Around this time Rogan entered talks to host his own radio show, but they came to nothing due to his already busy schedule. After
Fear Factor, Rogan focused his career on his stand-up comedy, as concentrating on television had made him feel lazy and uninspired to work on new material for his act. With the money he had earned from television, Rogan hired two people full-time to film him and his comedy friends on tour, and release clips on his website for his
JoeShow web series. In May 2005, Rogan signed a deal with the
Endeavor Talent Agency. Two months later, he filmed his second stand-up comedy special,
Joe Rogan: Live, in
Phoenix, Arizona. The special premiered on
Showtime in 2007. In 2005, Rogan wrote a blog entry on his website accusing comedian
Carlos Mencia of
joke thievery, a claim he had made since 1993. The situation culminated in February 2007 when Rogan confronted Mencia on stage at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. A video of the incident was uploaded onto YouTube and included evidence and comments from other comedians, including
George Lopez,
"The Reverend" Bob Levy,
Bobby Lee, and
Ari Shaffir. The incident led to Rogan's talent agent expelling him as a client of
The Gersh Agency, who also managed Mencia, and his ban from The Comedy Store, causing him to relocate his regular venue to the
Hollywood Improv Comedy Club. Rogan later said that every comic he had talked to was happy and thankful that he did it, In April 2007,
Comedy Central Records released Rogan's fourth comedy special,
Shiny Happy Jihad. The set was recorded in September 2006 at
Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco, and contains excerpts of an improvized Q&A session with the audience that was typical of Rogan's act at the time.
2009–present: Latest endeavors and podcast Rogan hosted the short-lived
CBS show
Game Show in My Head, which aired for eight episodes in January 2009. It was produced by
Ashton Kutcher. In 2010, Rogan accused comedian
Dane Cook of joke thievery. Later in 2011, Rogan played his first major film character, Gale, in the comedy film
Zookeeper. He was also working on a book around this time that he tentatively titled
Irresponsible Advice from a Man with No Credibility, based on his blog entries on his website. In December 2012, Rogan released his sixth comedy special
Live from the Tabernacle exclusively as a download on his website for , following
Louis C.K.'s example. In 2013, Rogan hosted the television show
Joe Rogan Questions Everything on the
SyFy network, which aired for six episodes. The show covered topics discussed on his podcasts, including the existence of
Bigfoot and
UFOs, and featured several comedians, experts, and scientists with the aim of trying to "put some subjects to bed ... with an open-minded perspective".
The Joe Rogan Experience In December 2009, Rogan launched a free
podcast with his friend and fellow comedian
Brian Redban. The first episode was recorded on December 24 and was to be a live weekly broadcast on
Ustream, with Rogan and Redban "sitting in front of laptops bullshitting". and in 2011, was picked up by
SiriusXM Satellite Radio. By January 2015, the podcast reached over 11 million monthly downloads. By October that year, the podcast was downloaded 16 million times each month, making it one of the most popular free podcasts. On May 19, 2020, Rogan announced that he had signed a multiyear licensing deal with
Spotify worth an estimated , making it one of the largest licensing agreements in the podcast business. The deal made
The Joe Rogan Experience available on Spotify starting September 1, 2020, and exclusive on the platform from January 2021. The podcast is available with both audio and video within the Spotify app and video is no longer streamed or uploaded to YouTube. The podcasts are typically released one day after recording, to allow time for the producers to make clips of the podcast. Clips from the video version will continue to be available on YouTube. In February 2022, singer
India Arie shared a compilation of Rogan saying the racial slur "
nigger" on
The Joe Rogan Experience on
Instagram. Rogan apologized, calling his past language "regretful and shameful" while also saying that the clips were taken out of context and that he only quoted the slur to discuss its use by others. The footage in question was first published by the
political action committee PatriotTakes, an affiliate of the liberal PAC
MeidasTouch. This resulted in allegations of a
defamation attempt by MeidasTouch, which the founders denied in an interview with
Barstool Sports founder
Dave Portnoy, instead attributing the source of the footage to
Alex Jones who was a recurring guest on Rogan's show. Rogan described the video compilation as a "political hit job". A number of UFC fighters, including
Israel Adesanya,
Terrance McKinney,
Michael Chandler,
Aljamain Sterling,
Frankie Edgar,
Darren Till,
Marlon Vera,
Ben Askren, and
Brendan Schaub, defended Rogan. Spotify had refused to carry 42 episodes of the podcast when it acquired the exclusive rights. Spotify says it spoke to Rogan about his "history of using some racially insensitive language", and it says (in an internal memo) that Rogan selected 70 episodes which were removed on February 4, 2022, In early 2022, the video platform
Rumble offered Rogan to switch from Spotify.
Variety reported that Rogan had declined the offer. In December 2024, Spotify confirmed that The Joe Rogan Experience was the top podcast on its platform for a fifth consecutive year.
Onnit Rogan is a co-founder of the
supplements and fitness company Onnit, which was sold to
Unilever in 2021. Rogan frequently advertises for Onnit products on his podcast. In April 2024 a lawsuit was filed against Onnit, alleging that its 'Alpha BRAIN' supplement performed no better than a
placebo in a
clinical study and that the product was surrounded by "false, misleading and deceptive advertising".
Comedy Mothership In 2022, Rogan purchased the historic
Ritz theater in downtown Austin, Texas, and renovated it into a comedy club known as the Comedy Mothership. The venue officially opened in March 2023 and features multiple performance rooms dedicated to stand-up comedy. == Views ==