Tony Woods: Veteran stand-up comedian and former Navy corpsman, a longtime friend of Joe Rogan from the early-90s New York comedy scene.
What this episode covers
Tony Woods joins Joe Rogan for a loose, story-driven conversation that opens on Joe's new Austin comedy club, the Mothership, and the craft of designing rooms for comics. Tony shares military stories from his time as a corpsman, including volunteering for gas-chamber exposures for three-day weekends and a Bigfoot scare during cold-weather training in Nova Scotia. A long stretch is spent watching and reacting to wild animal videos: chimps eating monkeys, seagulls swallowing rats, praying mantises killing hummingbirds, parasitic worms and cordyceps fungus controlling insects, and wolves hunting WWI soldiers. The episode turns personal and practical when Tony reveals an elevated PSA reading and family history of prostate cancer, prompting Joe to recommend an ice-bath and ketosis protocol he read about. They close on music, jazz authenticity (debating whether Sammy Davis Jr. played his own trumpet), comedy-career nostalgia, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Recommended on this episode
Champions
“that is a that is a funny movie but I saw it on the plane and it's about a lot of people with with challenges”— Tony Woods
Morozko Forge
Morozko Forge
“so this guy has a marasco I have one of those at home they're awesome”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
Invisalign
“I have an Invisalign in I'm getting my teeth straightened out let me see you know you can't really see”— Joe Rogan
Predator
“and then you know with the stealth technology the Predator yeah remember the Predator exactly yeah the language the alien language”— Joe Rogan
Chimp Empire
Netflix
“well have you guys been watching uh chimp Empire yeah I had the guy in it who directed it”— Joe Rogan
Futurama
“what's Futurama it's a cartoon the cartoon right yeah I never watched that show I heard it's really good”— Joe Rogan
The Pope of Greenwich Village
“remember the pope of Greenwich Village yeah I do I cut my thumbs up Charlie that was a good acting right there oh my God that movie was amazing”— Joe Rogan
New Jack City
“as a matter of fact we went to go see New Jack City and the guy says do you know him I'm like yeah I know him”— Tony Woods
Good Times
“the girl who played wallona on uh Good Times the one who sings Ain't we lucky we got him yeah she's in it”— Tony Woods
An American Pickle
“he's killing rats and then one day the rats attack him and he falls into a pickle Barrel the place closes down”— Tony Woods
Crossroads
“I was thinking of this scene in Crossroads the whole time where Ralph Macho's playing guitar against Steve I and it looks like he's playing guitar”— Jamie
A Man Called Adam
“it's called a man called Adam is what this movie was called but let me can you just show me like Miles Davis playing”— Jamie
The Last of Us
HBO
“it's the premise behind that zombie show on uh HBO The Last of Us the premise is that this infects people”— Joe Rogan
Big reveals from this episode
- Tony reveals an elevated PSA reading and that both his grandfathers died of prostate cancer; doctors are discussing removing his prostate.
- Joe recommends a cold-plunge plus ketogenic-diet protocol he read about where a man lowered his PSA from 7.0 to 1.8.
- Tony opens up about losing his son and how stand-up comedy kept him going through the grief.
- Tony recounts volunteering for extra military gas-chamber (NBC) exposures just to earn three-day weekends.
- Joe and Tony learn from research that the maneless Tsavo man-eating lions killed about 135 people in 1898.
- Joe explains how toxoplasmosis hijacks rats' brains to make them attracted to cat urine so cats will eat them.
- Joe's WWI story: Germans and Russians called a ceasefire to fight off wolves that were eating soldiers in the trenches.
- Jamie confirms Sammy Davis Jr's trumpet in 'A Man Called Adam' was overdubbed by Nat Adderley, settling the on-air debate.
Worth remembering
- Lightning starts roughly half of wildfires, but fires account for more than 85 percent of total wildfire destruction.
- Maneless Tsavo male lions stay maneless because a heavy mane would waste water in the hotter, drier climate.
- Losing your ring and little fingers can reduce grip strength by about 67 percent.
- Jon Jones fought Chael Sonnen so hard he dislocated his own big toe and finished the post-fight interview with it flipped.
- Cordyceps fungus infects ants and grows spores from their bodies, inspiring the premise of The Last of Us.
- A horsehair worm parasite lives inside praying mantises and compels them to enter water so it can hatch.
- French researchers concluded much of Napoleon's army (cut from ~600,000 to 30,000) was devastated by typhus and trench fever from lice and fleas.
- Pelicans and seagulls will swallow whole ducks, pigeons, and even rats.