Before he became a top podcast host in the United States, Joe Rogan was a struggling comedian, a small sitcom star, and the host of one of the most popular OG reality shows. He's just as surprised as anyone that he has been so popular and seems to be really enjoying himself.
He never set out to become an influential podcast host with millions of listeners, but really, who did since podcasts are relatively new?
Before he made regular headlines for his hours long talks and started some controversy, Rogan was just an average a stand-up comedian in Los Angeles like thousands of others. While he also thought about getting into kickboxing, an injury sidelined him and comedy became the focus.
Rogan fell into doing sitcoms while pursuing comedy, and he got lucky.
He's had a long career and the host of The Joe Rogan Experience is more popular and more talked about than ever. He has found himself the center of some recent controversies and has poked fun at his own success.
But who was Joe Rogan before he was Spotify's number one bro?
Joe Rogan Was A Sitcom Star In The 1990s
Rogan was doing the LA comedy circuit in the mid-90s when he was cast on the 90s sitcom Hardball, but that only lasted about nine episodes. After that experience, Rogan was then cast on Newsradio starring Phil Hartman.
It's said Rogan's character was a dumbed-down version of him: a bro who uses duct tape to fix everything and believes in conspiracy theories. His character was the handyman who fixed anything that broke in the radio station where the show took place.
Rogan continued to do stand-up comedy during that time; this was the show Hartman was starring in when he was murdered.
Of course, after Hartman's murder, the show wasn't the same nor was the cast. The show was canceled in 1999 and Rogan turned to host UFC fighting to pay the bills. But TV came knocking for Rogan once again.
Rogan Than Encouraged People To Eat Bugs And Do Crazy Stunts
Rogan became the host of Fear Factor. This was a huge show in the early 2000s when reality TV was new and hadn't saturated the TV market. Joe Rogan became a household name because Fear Factor was insanely popular because there had been nothing like it before.
Rogan had thought the show wouldn't even air or do well at all based on what the contestants had to do but he did it anyway to help his media career and for that paycheck. Fear Factor played on contestants' fears and forced them to do death-defying stunts, or they would have to do more disgusting tasks.
Things like eating worms, being covered in spiders or rats, or even eating animals' eyeballs was normal. Rogan was an intense host and would at times ridicule some contestants who were too scared to jump off a building or eat cockroaches.
He was also encouraging but then again, he didn't have to do anything dangerous for money. Fear Factor was a huge hit for television, but even Rogan was shocked and disgusted by some of the stunts. He left Fear Factor in 2006 and moved on to his next adventure: that podcast of his fans may have heard of.
Joe Rogan's Podcast Has Surpassed Expectations
The Joe Rogan Experience has been broadcasting since 2009. Rogan got in on the ground floor of Podcasting and built his show up. Rogan talks with an assortment of guests on his show. Some are just for entertainment, others have given questionable advice to millions of listeners.
Today, The Joe Rogan Experience is the number one podcast on Spotify. His success in his podcast has surprised many but even himself.
Rogan is a self-described libertarian and since he isn't a member of a major US political party, he claims that his show has guests that discuss controversial topics, but not on a bias. However, many disagree and claim that Rogan's show promotes anti-science propaganda in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rogan's podcast began with his friends coming on to talk, and it really grew. He gets into discussions, and even arguments, with his guests.
Some recent controversy over the advice that some guests give has made Rogan even more popular and right-wing site Rumble even offered him $100 million to leave Spotify. Rogan didn't take it proving he's trying to operate on a non-bias operation and of course his loyalty to Spotify.