Opie and Anthony… again

I’m home now, just chillin’, watching lots of television and being pretty unproductive overall. I’m totally fine with that, considering the January road trip that saw me go from the Bahamas to Australia, home for a day, then Mississippi, Atlantic City, and finally back home to Vegas. With two cashes adding up to just a little over half a million, I’d say that the trip was well worth it. So since I’ve had a little more free time I’ve been looking through some e-mails, forum posts, etc. and found a thread mentioning me and the Opie and Anthony radio show. To get you all caught up, I was asked to go on this show while at the WPT Celebrity event at the Commerce casino two years ago and had no idea what the show was about. I’d never heard of any of them. I sat down with them and then recognized one face, Jim Norton, who I’d previously seen on a show called Last Comic Standing. My wife and I thought he was one of the best comedians on that show, but he got kicked off because he was already a professional, or something to that effect. The others I’d never heard of, but Joe Rogan, was the host of a show that I’d heard of called Fear Factor. Anyway, so I’m pulled in to be on the show and it just comes off like a completely disorganized mess. It just seemed like utter chaos with no coordination whatsoever. I’d done several radio shows before and had never quite seen anything like this set up. They weren’t prepared at all, didn’t know who they were speaking to, knew nothing at all about poker, and had no idea what to ask me. I tried my best to make the best of on awkward situation. The one guy who actually knew something about poker was busy playing in the tournament. So then this Joe Rogan guy starts going a little batty. Not funny in the least, and I honestly believe I can be objective here because I don’t mind poking fun at myself at all. He basically just repeatedly cursed and acted like a juvenile. His material was weak and he masked that by just cursing more. I watch a lot of stand up and you can tell when a guy has no material when he overuses fart jokes and thinks that if he just curses louder and louder that it’s somehow funny and that no one will notice that he doesn’t actually have any jokes. Anyway, fast forwarding a bit, he was saying nasty things about what became my wife, etc. The guy didn’t know me at all, we weren’t friends, so it was all just crossing a line. You just don’t meet someone for the first time, invite them to your show, and then say the things he said. I didn’t have a real problem with anyone else on the show. Jim Norton and I hardly spoke except for one joke he was trying to tell that I caught on to quickly. He was basically speaking gibberish with a straight face and was expecting me to try and answer it intelligently. Of course, his question made no sense so I was like, “What are you babbling about?” He acknowledged that he was trying to “get me” but it didn’t work out. When I did the show I was a little shocked at what was coming out of Joe Rogan’s mouth. He blabbed away like Matusow and overshadowed Norton and the others with nonsense. So I later wrote in my forum that the show felt like a low rent version of Howard Stern. Oh man, did that set them off! That caused some fireworks on the forums as some loyal fans of their show starting posting on the FCP forums for a while. It all died down and went away until a recent broadcast where they were talking about poker and my name came up. I was then surprised to hear Jim Norton go off on me. I actually wasn’t really offended, although several members of the forum seemed bothered by it. The dude is a comedian and his job is to try and be funny. In fact, if he truly believed the things he was saying I’d be surprised. For example, he actually was crackin’ on my hairdo which I found pretty ironic, since it currently looks EXACTLY like his! It’s just a little strange. I was actually a fan of his work prior to him chewing me out, so should the fact that he was cracking on me change that? No, I don’t think so, unless it became hateful I have no problem with being made the butt of a joke. Anyway, I have no beef with the show. It doesn’t seem like my kind of humor at all, but to each his own. Having said that, I think this Joe Rogan guy has zero comedic talent whatsoever. If he can make it in showbiz, that is undeniable proof that ANYBODY has a chance. *************************************************************** As for this week, I’m looking forward to doing a lot of nothing. My mother is out here with my brother, my wife is here too, so I’ll likely spend some time hanging out with them. Aside from that, I’ll be watching some hockey, getting caught up on the writing, and then gearing up for the WPT event at the Commerce in late February. That tournament is going to be huge.
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