Joe Rogan Experience #1937 - Punkie Johnson

Joe Rogan reunites with Punkie Johnson, who tended bar at The Comedy Store for a decade before becoming a comedian and SNL cast member. They reminisce about Comedy Store culture, its mob-and-celebrity history, and mentors like Mitzi Shore, Jeff Scott, and Joey Diaz. Punkie shares her unlikely path to LA (funded by a lawsuit after falling into wet cement) and the grind of writing weekly SNL sketches. The conversation roams through Kanye and Elon, cars, an obsessive new boxing hobby, favorite shows like Physical 100, and fears around psychedelics, capped by a wild story of a friend getting knocked out buying MDMA in Oklahoma.

• Punkie funded her six-month move to LA with a lawsuit settlement after falling into unmarked wet cement in New Orleans.
  00:01:39
• She got passed at The Comedy Store in 2016 and landed managers through a Sarah Silverman-produced show.
  00:17:40
• Punkie only smokes marijuana once a month, alone, because it makes her paranoid and emotional, and she uses it to reset.
  00:28:34
• SNL is her first 'corporate job' with rules she must watch, a stark contrast to the anything-goes Comedy Store.
  01:17:44
• Her trainer told her she's actually a southpaw and her left hand, not her right, is her power hand.
  02:13:45
• Her friend got knocked out cold buying MDMA from strangers in an Oklahoma parking lot and didn't remember it afterward.
  02:36:33

• The Comedy Store building was once mob-owned by Bugsy Siegel and operated as Ciro's nightclub.
  00:13:01
• Ciro's opened in 1940 and hosted JFK, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan and Tina Turner before becoming The Comedy Store in 1972.
  00:13:32
• Joe's advice that stuck with Punkie was 'economy of words' to tighten her jokes.
  00:18:43
• Punkie's father was a longtime NOPD officer who now runs hospital security, and she was raised around guns.
  01:09:54
• Joey Diaz once made a headliner quit and leave mid-show at the Miami Improv while only middling.
  01:39:32
• Joe's weekly cardio is 10 rounds of eight 20-second sprints with 10-second rests on a Rogue Echo Bike.
  01:48:21
• Yoshihiro 'Sexyama' Akiyama, a 47-year-old Pride judo champion, competes on Netflix's Physical 100.
  01:55:37
• Ann Wolfe landed one of the most vicious one-punch knockouts in women's boxing and danced afterward.
  02:21:04
• Jordan Peterson reportedly took a 'heroic dose' of eight grams of mushrooms.
  02:35:01

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