The guest
Robert Kelly: Boston-bred stand-up comedian and podcaster, longtime friend of Joe Rogan from the early Boston comedy scene, known for his new special Kill Box.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan and old friend Robert 'Bobby' Kelly reminisce about their start in the Boston comedy scene and trade long stories about bushcraft camping, hunting, bears, coyotes and self-reliance. Robert details his comedy special Kill Box, which Louis CK directed, produced and paid for, and the chaos of taping it when an audience member nearly died. They go deep on virtual reality, AI porn, the future of media and how comedians like Louis CK and Andrew Schultz are bypassing gatekeepers. The conversation turns personal as Robert recounts a brutal childhood of abuse, food addiction, juvenile jail at 13, and getting sober at 15. He closes by describing losing 70 pounds after gastric sleeve surgery and rebuilding his health.
Recommended on this episode
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Pure Encapsulations Macular Support
Pure Encapsulations
“it stopped it in its tracks really yeah so now I can read my phone like it might have even actually got a little bit better”
“there's a company called Pure encapsulations and they have a thing called macular support and I started taking macular support and it stopped”— Joe Rogan
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Garmin Fenix
Garmin
“I love the Garmin watch because it lasts for 68 days”
“I have uh to uh Phoenix the Garmin watches I love the Garmin watch because it lasts for 68 days”— Robert Kelly
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Lip (divers watch)
Lip
“it's a nice watch... it's gorgeous”
“I got this 400 watch called lip it's just lip it's uh it's a nice watch it's a divers watch it's 400 bucks but it's it's gorgeous”— Robert Kelly
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Foundation Cigars
Foundation Cigars
“it's such a great cigar... it's one of my favorites”
“when uh Nick from Foundation cigars sent these to me I was very skeptical yeah very skeptical it's such a great cigar one of my favorites”— Joe Rogan
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Tiny Homes of Maine
Tiny Homes of Maine
“this is an awesome couple... they build these amazing houses”
“I went and bought a tiny house from like the tiny homes of Maine this is an awesome couple in the Woods of Maine they build these amazing houses”— Robert Kelly
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
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Apple Watch Ultra
Apple
“like Apple watch I got one of those but it lasts 24 hours you got to recharge it and if you have a new one the ultra looks good”— Robert Kelly
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Firebox (camp stove)
Firebox
“it's called the Firebox it's this little steel box that's flat and then it opens up right yeah I cooked everybody rice pilaf”— Robert Kelly
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Whoop strap
Whoop
“it looks probably like this strap from like my whoop strap and it's reading the way your wrist moves”— Joe Rogan
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Buck knife
Buck Knives
“I gave Joe list my broken buck knife that he didn't know was broken and I had bear spray”— Robert Kelly
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Oculus (Meta Quest)
Meta
“he showed me the new version of meta which is out now it's the new version of oculus yeah it's incredible”— Joe Rogan
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Virtualizer Elite 2
Cyberith
“it's called the virtualizer that's what it is and so you go in virtualizer Elite two and so you move around”— Joe Rogan
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Toyota Land Cruiser (1995)
Toyota
“I have a 1995 Land Cruiser that I had built for the apocalypse I had like I'm coming to your house tons of meat”— Joe Rogan
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Chevrolet Chevelle
Chevrolet
“get yourself a Chevelle I'd love a Chevelle your favorite car such a badass car”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
David August custom suits
David August
“then I got David August to make me some custom suits when we were um I was I'd done a few before with suits on”— Robert Kelly
ProductReferenced
Anthony Aiden Opticians custom eyeglasses
Anthony Aiden Opticians
“this guy makes them like this is like a Rolex there's 500 of these made this is 230 something of 500”— Robert Kelly
MediaReferenced
Prophecy
John Frankenheimer
“there was you know some nuclear Lake and the Animals ate out of it and tadpoles were this big and there was a bear like that just going around killing everybody”— Robert Kelly
MediaReferenced
Alien
Ridley Scott
“you know that's when alien was the movie Alien that was 1979 really yeah I thought it was like way later than that”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Rocky
John G. Avildsen
“oh look who's in it oh my God what's her face from Rocky and that suck that she's what's her face from Rocky”— Robert Kelly
MediaReferenced
Caddyshack
Harold Ramis
“what movies we watch Caddyshack one night like my friend plugged it into his computer and we went in”— Robert Kelly
MediaReferenced
Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg
“yeah we're ready player one yeah that was a great great movie yeah are they doing it too you said you read the book”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Matrix
The Wachowskis
“it's funny because that movie came out we're like oh this is fun because it'll never happen we're there we're pretty close”— Robert Kelly
MediaReferenced
Independence Day
Roland Emmerich
“you're not gonna be the people on top of the building in the Independence Day welcome well and then they just blast it out”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg
“you don't want to be one of the first guys to get scooped up like Richard Dreyfuss and Close Encounters”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
The War of the Worlds
H.G. Wells
“Orson Welles played he read from H.G Wells War of the world it's H2 Wells right the book he read the the story on the air”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Dance Dance Revolution
Konami
“like you know Dance Dance Revolution yeah kids lost shitloads of weight and got in great shape because they got addicted to that game”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Call of Duty
Activision
“they're not good no they're not good yet because we're used to playing Call of Duty and um you know all that stuff”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry
“if you look at Star Trek we have better technology now way better than they had didn't have the internet they had walkie-talkies”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Sorry (Louis CK special)
Louis CK
“I love his last special's name sorry I was the greatest with it behind him the giant sorry behind it it was unbelievable”— Robert Kelly
MediaReferenced
Elvis '68 Comeback Special
Elvis Presley
“I was like Elvis is 68 special his Comeback Special I want that look where 10 by 10 stage 12 inches off the ground surrounded by people”— Robert Kelly
Big reveals from this episode
- Robert reveals he lost 70 pounds after gastric sleeve surgery, having ballooned to 350 pounds.
- Robert first went to jail at age 13 for armed robbery, assault and battery, malicious destruction and breaking probation.
- His mother refused to pay his $10 bail and let him go through the system, a moment he credits with saving his life.
- Robert got sober at 15 at a rehab house called the Road Back run by Tom Tompkins.
- His special Kill Box was directed, produced and paid for entirely by Louis CK and released on louisck.com.
- While taping the special, a woman in the front rows had a seizure and nearly died mid-show.
- Dane Cook secretly shut down Robert's early 'guest book' social-media site by impersonating the FBI and Child Services.
Worth remembering
- Coyotes produce larger litters when their populations are hunted, which is why they've spread to every US city.
- The short-faced bear, twice the size of a polar bear, may have kept early humans from crossing the Bering land bridge.
- New Jersey has the highest bear population per capita in the country.
- Bear spray is made weaker than human mace because bears can't wash the irritant out of their eyes.
- Orson Welles was only 23 when his 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast triggered nationwide panic.
- Navy pilot Ryan Graves told Joe that after 2014 radar upgrades, pilots encountered UFOs on roughly 90% of missions.
- Pure Encapsulations Macular Support stopped Joe's age-related vision decline 'in its tracks.'
- Louis CK got Robert back on stage after the seizure with a pep talk citing MLK, JFK and Tom Brady.
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