The guest
Dave Landau: A stand-up comedian and writer from the Detroit suburbs, known for his work in radio and comedy and as author of the memoir 'Party of One: A Fuzzy Memoir.' He came up through Second City Detroit and Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle and is in long-term recovery from addiction.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan and comedian Dave Landau open with the decline and bootlegging history of Detroit before drifting into a sprawling, story-heavy conversation. Landau details his harrowing addiction history, his mother's suicide and father's death from Agent Orange exposure, getting institutionalized as a teen, and racking up 13 arrests. The middle of the episode is a long run on dangerous animals, pit bulls, bears, moose, bow hunting, and ill-advised wildlife reintroduction programs. They also riff on the opioid crisis, the Sackler family, fentanyl, performance-enhancing drugs in sports, and Bill Cosby. The episode closes on Landau's path into comedy through Second City and the Detroit club scene.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Tesla Model S Plaid
Tesla
“car is incredible. It's a piece of machinery from the future”
“I have a Tesla that will knock your dick into the dirt. It's not just fast. It's car is incredible. It's a piece of machinery from the future.”— Joe Rogan
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White Boy (White Boy Rick documentary)
Shawn Rech
“I highly recommend”
“if you if you see the documentary White Boy, I highly recommend. Yeah. See, a teenage drug informant for the FBI”— Dave Landau
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Purple Gang: Organized Crime in Detroit
Paul R. Kavieff
“That's a great book”
“Like that book right there, the organized crime in Detroit. That's a great book and it's got a lot of fun photos.”— Dave Landau
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Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog
“one of my favorite movies ever”
“unless you're the grizzly man guy who just is one of my favorite movies ever because it's just”— Dave Landau
The guest's own work
BookBy the guest
Party of One: A Fuzzy Memoir
Dave Landau
“I brought up my book party of one a fuzzy memoir it did really well on Amazon and uh yeah it's a lot of people have enjoyed it”— Dave Landau
BookBy the guest
Party of One: A Fuzzy Memoir
Dave Landau
“I put out a book. It's called Party who won a fuzzy memoir a little while ago and it's it's all stories of my youth”— Dave Landau
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
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Shinola watch
Shinola
“we're talking about your Shyola watch that I'm I'm glad Detroit's coming back, you know, and I like I like how Shyola represents”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Unplugged Performance (Tesla modification)
Unplugged Performance
“it's a Plaid that was sent to a company called Unplug Performance. Takes the fenders off. Put carbon fiber wider fenders.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Companion
Drew Hancock
“I was watching a movie last night... Companion. And it was just all about like sex bots... It was on HBO.”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
White Boy Rick
Yann Demange
“There's a documentary called White Boy and it's one Yeah, that's the one with McConna, which is a good movie.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Top Gear
BBC
“Do you ever watch that show Top Gear? Jeremy Clarkson... they went to Detroit and they bought a house for $500.”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Go
Doug Liman
“that's like when uh the movie Go came out... They're all trying to get ecstasy in it and it's just like it's like Katie Holmes”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
The Oxycontin Express
Mariana van Zeller
“this documentary, the Oxycontton Express, showed how people were loading up the trunks of their cars with these pain pills”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Cosby Mysteries
NBC
“did you ever see the Cosby Mysteries intro? It's a pill going into a martini and then it just says Cosby Mysteries.”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
An American Werewolf in London
John Landis
“I don't even think wolves howl... American were off in London.”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
Carlin Classic Gold
George Carlin
“he bought me Carlin Classic Gold on tape when I was nine. Which had Seven Dirty Words and all that.”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
Delirious
Eddie Murphy
“He showed me delirious when I was like eight... I dude I still laugh so hard cuz that like uh the whole bit he does about the hamburger”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart
“he bought me Dangerfield, Button Down Mind of Bob New Hart, Eddie Murphy.”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
I Think You Should Leave
Tim Robinson
“Tim Robinson who I didn't know him well... it's cool to see him like skyrocket with I Think You Should Leave”— Dave Landau
MediaReferenced
Detroiters
Sam Richardson
“I was in a troop with Sam Richardson who went on to do uh Detroititers”— Dave Landau
Big reveals from this episode
- Landau reveals his mother killed herself and he started SSRIs at 33; he is now weaning off after 10 years.
- His father got soft-tissue sarcoma from Agent Orange in Vietnam, lost roughly $4 million, and the VA denied his mother's claims.
- Landau candidly describes snorting, smoking, and shooting heroin, calling the injection 'majestic.'
- Recounts a lady suing a family for $50,000 over a dog scratch, and settling because legal fees would top $100k.
- Joe says it was his 13th arrest, 16 years ago, that made him get sober.
- Landau was institutionalized for two weeks as a teen and roomed with a patient who believed he was a werewolf and attacked him.
- They speculate Bill Cosby may be 'the most prolific serial rapist in history' and discuss his Spanish Fly act.
Worth remembering
- At one point 94% of the earth's heroin supply came from Afghan poppy fields the US military was guarding.
- The Golden Triangle (Thailand, Myanmar, Laos) is a major synthetic-drug manufacturing hub.
- Cartels began adding fentanyl to heroin because depleted soil made their poppies produce weak heroin.
- Detroit had alcohol prohibition three years before it went national, spawning the ruthless Purple Gang that even Capone feared.
- New Jersey has one of the highest black bear concentrations in the country, around 3,000 bears.
- During WWI, German and Russian troops reportedly called a ceasefire to kill wolves attacking them in the trenches.
- Warm-blooded animals grow larger the farther north they live, to retain heat (Bergmann's rule).
- Cat-borne toxoplasmosis can alter human behavior toward impulsivity and aggression; at one point a large share of France was infected.
- Wild boars overrunning central California are thought to descend from animals on William Randolph Hearst's estate.
- Eating poppy seed bagels can make you fail a drug test for heroin.
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