Comedian Joe Rogan was at first resistant to doing a live Netflix stand-up show and almost turned down the opportunity.
Rogan, 57, who is now known best as host of his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, started his career in comedy and recently premiered a new set on Netflix.
Rogan filmed the live special called Burn the Boats at his The Mothership comedy club in Austin, Texas, on August 3.
Despite practicing his skills by doing multiple headlining gigs at The Mothership every week, when he was offered a Netflix special, Rogan's instinct was to turn down the streaming giant.
"I was getting ready to do a special in August of 2020, but then, you know, obviously, in March, everything shut down," Rogan told his guest Adam Sandler on the most-recent episode of his podcast and was referring to the coronavirus pandemic.
"And I didn't do stand-up for eight months and just working on my material... and not even thinking about the special."
Rogan told the Little Nicky actor that he was enjoying running his comedy club and watching other comedians until Netflix came knocking again.
"Netflix said they want to do a live special with me and at first, I was, like, 'f*** that' and I told my manager, 'No, I don't want to do that'," Rogan said, adding he changed his mind after some self-reflection and realizing he said no out of fear: "I was f****** terrified."
Rogan then told Sandler how he prepared for the live special by honing his set on stage in Austin.
"I did that set in order for three weeks straight and I had it locked in for three weeks," Rogan said. "I also wrote all the bits out by hand. I wrote them all out, even the ones already knew, I wrote all the transitions out."
Rogan added how he listened back to his sets and watched recordings of them to critique his comedy to see how he could improve, and admitted being tough on himself.
"I beat myself into the ground. I overprepared. So then, when I got up, there was no thought about, 'What is next?'" Rogan said.
Sandler praised his old friend, admitting he would be too terrified to do a live special.
Burn the Boats received mixed reviews from critics and viewers and also headlines over a joke Rogan made about Prince Harry.
During the live special, Rogan spoke about getting criticized by the prince in 2021 over his comments about vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I got canceled so often during COVID that sometimes I would find out by accident. This is a true story. One time, I just woke up. I'm in my underwear. I plop down in front of the TV, I turn it on, and Prince Harry's talking s*** about me. I'm, like, I just woke up. I'm vulnerable. I'm in my underwear, and there is a prince on TV," Rogan said.
"Do you know how f****** weird it is when a prince knows your name? He's, like, 'Joe Rogan's giving out dangerous vaccine misinformation.' And my first thought was, 'F***! Did I?' I might have..."
Newsweek previously approached representatives of Prince Harry via email for comment.
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