Becoming Friends with Dana White, Gambling with Michael Jordan & Fame I Jon Orlando DSH #412

I feel like does do you have this issue where like your guest kind of loses the the excitement level about it like if you circle back you go hey remember you came in three months ago here I'm putting that episode up and getting them to to engage with it themselves is that a challenge or no it is that's why I'm doing two a day because I'm getting texts daily at this point from guests that came on five months ago like did my episode drop right so yeah it's a learning lesson you know I'm new to the space sure yeah

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Guys, we got John Orlando here today.

He's finally back.

I'm back.

You're rarely good.

It's a rare sighting that I'm in this building.

Yeah.

That's how you know you're killing it, though, right?

I guess.

I don't know if I'm killing it yet, but I'm trying to kill it.

I'm out there hunting.

Well, you're expanding, man.

It's cool to see you grow in multiple cities.

Thank you, man.

You're in Miami now, right?

Well, we're in Boca, close enough, but we are going to go proper proper in Miami.

Nice.

Yeah, Dallas,

Scottsdale.

That's dope.

You've been in the podcast space for a minute, and you're like part of the growth and evolution of the industry.

What changes have you been seeing recently?

Man,

well, it's funny.

You know, when I moved here to Vegas seven years ago, I guess it'll be eight years in July,

I went up and down the strip.

I met with every single hotel, including Wynn, pitching podcast studios, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

This is in 2017.

Podcasts,

right?

Podcast.

What is it?

Internet radio?

I don't know.

You know, that's what they would say about it.

And now, obviously, I mean, you see, there's Blue Eyre at Wynn.

There's VSIN over at Circa.

And at, well, they were at South Point, or they're still at South Point.

I'm not even sure.

I haven't heard.

You know, I think every single studio.

Every hotel will have a studio at some point.

Some are going to do it better than others.

So it's just the awareness of podcasting has grown.

And people thought it was, it's funny, the podcasting people thought it had peaked in 2017, 2018

and the people that really don't know about podcasts it wasn't even on their radar screen yet it's funny how when you're when you're in the bubble you think it's bigger than it is yeah and when you go outside the bubble you realize like no there's still so many people that don't even know what's going on dude so many people started shows in the past year it's crazy yeah a lot of athletes i noticed like pro athletes are starting even baseball players yeah got a baseball background yeah i i kind of think it'll be like instagram i mean i think like if you have an instagram page and a tick tock page, you will have a podcast.

Obviously, some are going to be horrible, just like Instagram, right?

It's like there's some that do it like you, and then there's me.

You know,

yeah, I mean, I just think it's, it's a, it's such a great platform.

Um, if you are a content creator, this takes out a lot of the work, right?

You sit down, you have a conversation with somebody for 20, 30, 40, 60 minutes.

Yeah.

And then you get all those clips out of it, and there's your content.

It's not too hard.

You spend a couple hours a week and you got content for the the week.

Yeah, yeah.

You bang them out like a machine, man.

I've never seen anybody that just tackles it like you did six today, dude.

That's amazing.

But I feel like you just did six a week ago.

I know.

I did six on Tuesday.

Yeah.

So, how often do you release them?

I'm a daily show now.

You know what I'm saying?

Oh, you are?

Okay.

But you know what's crazy?

Since I'm six months backed up, I have to start releasing two a day starting in January.

I believe it.

Just to catch up.

Right.

And do you worry about like,

I don't like the thing I don't like about putting them in the can is I feel like this do you have this issue where like your guest kind of loses the the excitement level about it?

Like if you circle back and you go, hey, remember you came in three months ago.

Here, I'm putting that episode up and getting them to engage with it themselves.

Is that a challenge or no?

It is.

That's why I'm doing two a day because I'm getting texts daily at this point from guests that came on five months ago.

Like, did my episode drop?

Right.

So, yeah, it's a learning lesson.

You know, I'm new to the space.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer.

I think it's just you just do what you can do.

And you're, you know, you're probably trying to capitalize on you're really hot right now.

Right.

It's like you've got a lot of momentum.

So it's like, why not just keep,

you know, I want to be more current because I notice when you talk about current events, it gets more views.

Right.

So I don't want to be talking about shit from six months ago.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

That's why like shows like Fresh and Fit are so like hot because they're talking about stuff happening on the spot and they're live.

See, I don't have the balls to go live because my ego, I only have ego when it comes to live views.

I can't handle someone like me.

It's going to be like 24, 31.

Well, that's probably how everyone starts.

Aiden Ross had like five views the first year.

Yeah, it's just so tough.

And I also feel like it's a young man's game, and I'm not young.

So it's weird.

It's weird to see you.

You look young.

Thank you.

I'll take 10x.

Shout out to 10x and Gary Breca, right?

I'm going to dive into that.

Yeah.

And Gary's been getting a lot of heat.

I'm not sure if you see this on social media.

Yeah, you know, I have.

And I get, I don't know if you get, but I get a lot of DMs too of people complaining about um it takes too long to get the results and all that and i just tell them the truth i say look the guy dana came on my podcast i just happened i didn't know what he was gonna i didn't know he was working with 10x i just said dana i go to every fight I've seen you shred down.

You know, what are you doing?

And that's when he said, oh, I had my blood work done.

This guy, Gary Breckett, told me I got 10.4 years to live.

And just from that episode, I mean, that one clip got like 9 million views on my Instagram.

Right.

And,

you know, TEDx got like 5,000 inquiries, Gary told me, just from that.

So imagine where they're at now.

Like, it's a, you know, you've, you've started businesses.

When you're a startup, it's tough, man.

It's, it's tough to get your process down and get the team together.

And I don't think they were ready.

Who could have predicted this kind of like rise for 10x?

You know, so I just tell my friends, you know, and even a lot of strangers that just listen to my show, whatever, and they're like, hey, I signed up for 10x.

It's been six weeks, whatever.

I'm like, just, I get it.

Be patient.

Don't give up.

I'll, you know, I try to reach out to Sage and see if, you know, if I can help or whatever.

But it's a great, it's a great company.

It's a great program.

They'll get it.

It's growing pains.

Yeah.

It changed my life too, man.

For sure.

I used to get sick.

Dude, yeah.

I used to get sick every month at least.

Yeah.

And now I haven't been sick in a year.

Isn't it wild?

It's wild.

Right?

Are you on keto also?

I'm on pretty much whatever they said, which I love their recommendations because it's all natural.

Yep.

It's all holistic.

There's nothing synthetic.

And I found out I was basically allergic to enriched food.

Did you have that one?

Yep.

Exactly.

So I was eating bread every day in my life.

Every day.

And that's why I was sick.

Don't you love it?

Yeah, bread is fire.

You can't do it.

Yeah.

I just went to, you know, Italy, Italy.

Yeah.

Because their pasta you can get.

Because it's from Italy.

It's not enriched or whatever.

So I just got a box of it, like literally boxes of it.

So I haven't tried any yet, but I'm excited to like, you know,

have pasta again.

Yeah, dude.

I miss pasta.

I used used to eat it all the time.

Right.

Everything's enriched here.

It's terrible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they don't have that problem like in Italy or in Europe anywhere, right?

It's just here.

This country's crazy.

It's great, but it's also crazy.

And it makes you wonder, because I know you used to play baseball.

You were probably eating terrible food.

Oh, God.

Awful.

So you could have been maybe in the MLB if you had a proper diet.

Who knows?

Because I have, I've suffered from chronic tendonitis on and off for years.

A lot of joint pain, which also comes from sugar and inflammation.

You know, I was eating sugar.

I was just, I was literally like Dana, Mountain Dew, Twinkies, candy, like just sugar addict.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, between that and pizza and pasta, it's just dominoes.

Dominoes, yeah, all that.

Fast food.

Yeah.

Same, dude.

And I was a distance runner, so that really takes a toll on you.

But I was still pretty elite.

Right.

I could run a half mile in a minute.

59.

Really?

Yeah, a mile in 440.

Oh, wow.

And I was on a sh ⁇ .

You run a 440 mile?

In high school, yeah.

Savage.

And that was on a s ⁇ diet because the school lunch is terrible.

Let's be honest.

Did you eat that or did you bring your own?

No, I brought my own.

But I brought crap.

Even that, yeah.

You're bringing a white bread sandwich.

Uh-huh.

Cheetah butter and jelly, Doritos.

And a soda.

And then Coke.

That's not much better.

And it's pretty wild.

Like, our kids are going to be animals.

Yeah.

I was drinking before Gary Brecca got a hold of me.

I'm not kidding you, Sean, eight to ten sodas a day between Mountain Dew.

Are you serious?

I swear to you.

Between Coke, Mountain Dew, and Dr.

Pepper.

Because I also ate out three meals a day, at least two meals a day.

Yeah.

And when you eat out, if you're not mindful of diet and being on a program, you eat like a lunatic, right?

It's like bread and like Cheesecake Factory, like two baskets of bread.

Oh, man.

Like just crazy.

Those cheesecakes are deadly.

So good.

Dude, eight to 10.

So how many pounds were you?

When I started, I was 207.

Okay.

Today I'm 175.

Wow.

So you cut 30 pounds.

Yeah.

That's incredible in a year.

And it was easy.

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Just diet.

Yeah, the first two weeks sucked.

I was like, I'll never make this.

I'll never make it.

Yeah.

You know, and I was texting Dana every day and I was like, dude, this is so hard.

And he's like, stay on course.

Should be all right.

I was like, all right.

And

then I lost like 20 pounds.

And then it stopped.

I stalled out for a few months.

I was still on the program, but just no more weight came off.

And I didn't have a goal weight.

I didn't even, honestly, when I was 207, I hated, like when I watched the Dana episode of Action Junkies,

my face looks fat

and it bothered.

It had been bothering me leading up to that.

But I didn't have a target weight in mind.

But then when I started seeing abs, I was like, oh my God, like there's that old saying all these fitness people have, you know, abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.

And I never really understood it until you go through eating properly in the kitchen and you realize the abs come, it's unbelievable.

You don't have to do hundreds and hundreds of crunches to get abs.

Yeah.

You just need to eat right.

Yeah.

I hate crunches, dude.

Terrible.

They're annoying.

Running, cardio, and crunches.

I'm out.

I don't want to do it.

Running on a treadmill's got to be top five most boring things in life.

I can't do it.

I don't know how people have the mental strength to get through it.

Yeah.

It's so boring.

It's so boring.

You're not going anywhere.

You're like a hamster.

It's like torture, man.

Yeah.

How'd you meet Dana and build a friendship with him?

It's kind of a funny story.

So

can I go long on a long story?

Yeah.

All right.

So I'll try to go quick.

So my dad is Tony Orlando.

You're too young, but he was a famous singer in the 70s, had a TV show in the 70s.

He was in the movie That's My Boy with Adam Sandler, if you saw that movie.

So when my dad turned, this is 10 years ago, when my dad turned 70, he was adamant, do not throw me a birthday party.

So we knew he meant business.

It wasn't like people might say that, but deep down they still want you to do it.

We knew like, don't throw him a party.

So my stepmom says, look, why don't we get a bunch of his peers and show biz friends?

Let's just get them to send him like a cool video.

Happy birthday, Tony.

Maybe they tell a little story.

We'll cut it all together and we'll show it to them.

Yeah.

I was like, I love this idea.

Bro, I got, I went crazy with this idea.

I got Adam Sandler.

I got Kiss in full makeup.

I got Steven Tyler.

I got Michael Bouble.

Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, Kenny G playing happy birthday.

Lionel Ritchie telling this crazy, amazing amazing story how when he first got into show biz, my dad kind of took him under his wing and how

he was the nicest star Lionel had ever met was my dad.

Demi Lovato as she's walking on stage.

Yo, happy birthday, Uncle Tony.

Like it was insane.

The Jonas brothers, make all these crazy, amazing artists Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, it's crazy.

Over a hundred.

Just a lot of them my dad already knew.

Okay.

So I just was texting people or calling their manager.

You know, a lot of them I didn't know.

One of them was Dana White.

I was like, this is my chance to get to Dana White.

So I call the office and the girl, this young girl answers.

And I say, hi, my name is John Orlando.

You know, that name's going to mean nothing to you.

I said, my father is Tony Orlando, but from the sound of your voice, you sound kind of young.

That name probably means nothing to you.

I said, but I promise if you send your mom a text or your grandma a text right now and you said, I'm talking to Tony Orlando's son, they will think that's really cool.

She starts laughing.

She's like, how can I help you?

I said, well, I'm looking to get Dana to send in a birthday video for my dad.

He's turning 70.

Here's the list of people I already got.

We're not putting this on social media and we never did.

It's just for my dad's eyes.

You know, could Dana send in a video that says, happy birthday, Tony.

She says, I'll pass the message.

Five minutes later, I get a call from Dana White, you know, from a block number.

So it usually means my dad.

So I answer the phone, you know, hey, what's up?

I'm thinking it's my dad.

Your old man's Tony Orlando.

I said, what?

Who's this?

It's Dana White from the UFC.

I go, shut the fuck up.

He goes, yeah.

He goes, what do you you need i so i tell him he goes yeah you'll have it by next friday i said okay great

he sends the video we cut them all together it's over an hour long right yeah so my dad's birthday comes april 3rd that year and we show him this video my dad is bawling because it was kind of like what people would probably say at your funeral right but only he got to see like what he means to people ranging from Demi Lovato, how like he was kind of like her mentor like when she first got into the business, all the way up to a Lionel Ritchie, Right.

So my dad says, what was that with Dana White?

You know, because he was like, my dad's never met Dana, whatever.

I said, well, that one was for me.

You know, I just wanted to get to know Dana.

And Dana invited us to a fight, Memorial Day weekend.

Yeah.

So my dad's like, all right.

So we go to this fight.

We're three rows behind Dana.

After the first fight on the main card, Dana turns around and says, Tony, come here, you know?

So we go up, we start talking to Dana, and he says,

get your phone out.

He points to me.

I go, oh, man, a pick would be great.

You know, know, I've met everyone growing up, Sean.

I mean, you name them.

I've met them.

De Niro, Pacino.

I mean, I've met them all.

Damn.

I was starstruck meeting Dana White.

Really?

Yeah, because, you know, I'm a huge UFC fan, as you know,

and I'm an entrepreneur.

So it's like he's a double threat, right?

It's like he's not only a boss, kick entrepreneur,

he's the president.

Well, now the CEO of one of the coolest sports, if not the coolest.

I'd say it's the coolest.

Right.

It's the coolest.

So it's like being a rock star, right?

So meeting him was a big deal.

So he says, get your phone out.

I'm like, picture.

Yeah, great.

He goes, no, no, no, we'll get to that.

Take my number.

Okay.

I take his number.

He says, you don't pay for tickets anymore.

You call me.

I said, don't Saturday night talk me, Dana, because I'm going to abuse the f out of that.

And yeah, I've been to pretty much every event since.

Even the slap ones.

Even the slap ones, yeah.

That's awesome.

Which are fun, right?

Those are sick.

Yeah.

And that was seven years ago that that happened?

It'll be 10 years in April or May, Memorial Day weekend, 10 years ago.

What a great gift to your dad.

That's one of the best gifts I've ever heard.

Yeah.

How were you able to stay grounded growing up around so many celebrities?

Did you not get caught up in that lifestyle?

I never did.

You know, I have always seen kids of celebs

get hooked on drugs and stuff and blame the dad's fame.

And everybody's path is different, so I'm not on them.

But my parents were pretty normal.

You know, my mom was very normal.

And my dad was normal.

He wasn't a party guy.

You know, he was, you know, he had a hit TV show for three and a half years on CBS.

But he was a normal, you know, my dad, if you run into my dad in an airport from head to toe, I promise you, he got everything he's wearing at Walmart.

Like, my dad is normal like that, you know?

There's no like star stuff.

I always say, like, if you meet him and you want to take a quick pick with my dad and you're in an airport, make sure you're not going to miss your flight because he's going to talk your ear off.

You're not going to get out easy.

Like, he doesn't rush an interaction.

That's

yeah, yeah.

So, you know, I grew up pretty normal.

I mean, well, to me, it was normal.

I mean, I grew up taking limos to Dodger games.

That's not normal.

But my parents were really nice people, and I just followed in their footsteps.

My dad wasn't really a drinker or anything.

I don't drink.

I never got into.

I had one little crazy year where I was popping some Molly here and there.

I got a little crazy from the time I was 30 to 31.

I kind of went off the deep end.

Midlife crisis?

Yeah, probably.

But other than that, I've been pretty normal.

That's cool, man, because a lot of Slebs kids, man, these child actors or whatever, dude, they go down a dark path.

Yeah, I think I was lucky in a sense.

I was so young.

You know, when my dad had his first hit records, I was one.

Okay.

Or the year I was born, really, even 1970, 71.

And then when he had his TV show, I was ages three through seven.

Oh, so you don't remember much?

I was, I remember, but I don't, I didn't, it's different than I think if I was a teenager.

Yeah.

I think that probably could have been a different deal for me.

Yeah.

You know, sure.

When did you get into poker?

I know you made a deep run this year in the World Series.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, playing in high school, just home games and stuff.

And then

in the casinos, you know, not till

probably

Rounders, you know, when Rounders came out in 1998, started playing.

And then I really got serious.

I know this is like this everybody's story and poker players hate hearing this, but like when Chris Moneymaker

won the World Series in 04 or whatever that was, 03 or 04, something like that.

You know, it was kind of like, well, if he can do it, I can do it kind of thing.

I still have yet to do it.

But yeah, I've won a couple small tournaments.

I had a great run in the

10K turbo bounty this summer.

I got a text from you, you know, that made my day getting, you know, you're like, is this you?

You're looking at the leaderboard.

It's kind of trippy to be like, Sean, I was chip leader in that tournament, $10,000 bounty tournament, turbo bounty.

Literally from like 11.30 in the morning all the way till 1 a.m.

I was chip leader.

So it's like John Orlando, Phil Helmuth, John Orlando, Phil Ivey, Phil Helmuth.

And I remember when we made it into the money, Phil had literally three or four chips in front of him.

Wow.

When we made the money.

And we were on break and I cruised up to him.

I've known Phil like 10 years also.

Yeah.

And I was like,

man, Phil, you'll get back in this.

He was like, nah,

this one's yours.

He's like, this one's yours.

Go get it.

And I was like, all right.

And

Phil being the savage he is, he grinded back and the wheels fell off for me around 1 a.m.

And I went out and I think I was in 35th maybe.

Wow.

I don't know how many.

693 or 4.

Damn it.

But

Phil ended up winning it.

He won it?

Phil won it.

From 50,000.

$800,000.

Phil won.

Sean, I already spent the money.

I thought I was going to win this thing.

I was like, I spent $200,000 around dinner break.

No, you know, so I ended up cashing for like $38K with the bounties.

It was the best I've ever done.

First World Series cash.

Actually, no, I cashed

before that in the 1600 Turbo Bounty.

Okay.

Like a week before that.

Yeah.

And yeah, it was really fun.

It's a trip, though.

Like, you know, 693 or four people played.

And I remember Randall Emmett text me the night before and he says, are you going to play the main?

Which was like a week later.

And I said, yeah, I'm going to play the main.

But I said, I'm going to play the 10K Turbo tomorrow.

He writes back, laughing my off.

No, you're not.

And I'm like, what?

And Randall knows I play.

I'm certainly not a pro or anything.

You know, and I write back, what do you mean?

He's like, bro, 10K turbo bounty, you're not playing in that event.

Don't be crazy.

I was like, what do you mean?

He's like, dude, it's all pros.

And I was like, what?

He's like, just play the main.

It's a softer field, you know, because you might have 8,000 people in the main or 10,000 people, whatever it was this year.

But a lot of them are just recreational bucket list players.

They won their way in off a $150 satellite.

It's just a different class of players.

But I took offense to it.

I was like, what are you talking about?

He's like, bro, you're literally going to be the only non-pro in this tournament.

He's like, I remember the text.

He's like, you have no business playing in this tournament.

And I'm like, I'm writing back.

I'm so mad.

You know, I'm like, I will cash.

Like, I'm going to cash, you know?

And then I started to having doubts before I went to bed.

And I was like, maybe he's right.

Like, am I just throwing away 10K?

Like, I know he knows what he's talking about.

It's a lot, too.

It's a lot, you know.

And I was like, f it, I'm going to play, you know?

And so I played and I was, I was kind of like nervous at first, you know, and

Sean, when I sat down at my table, Randall sends me a text.

So he went from being like a hate, not a hater, but you know, just talking the night before, to then supportive, like poker mentor kind of role.

So he's like, take a video of your table, and I'll tell you who the, you know, I'll tell you who's who.

Okay.

So I take a quick video.

I'm acting like a, hey guys, I got a podcast action,

whatever, right?

But deep down, I'm just trying to get, you know, take inventory.

Send Randall this video.

And he's like, bro, to your left is Ren Lim.

Stay the f away from him.

He's a savage.

I look him up on like Hendon Mob.

He's like 7 million or something in career earnings or something, but he's also like a monster cash player, you know, hardly speaks English.

I go around the table.

Randall's like, stay away from this guy, stay away from that guy.

Then Ben Lamb comes late.

He was like player of the year in like 2013 or 2014 or maybe 2016, whatever it was.

And he's like, bro, that's Ben Lamb right across from you.

So then Ben sits down.

He says says hi by first name to every single person at the table except me.

Yeah.

Proving Randall is right.

I'm literally at a table full of pros.

So now I'm in my head and I'm just like, oh my God, what have I done?

Like, I can't believe I've done this.

And I win a couple hands, you know, but I'm still being like, anyone re-raises me, I'm automatic fold.

Even if I have queens, I'm like, oh, and there's like a king on the board.

I'm like, fold.

You know, like, I'm just playing tight.

I'm playing super tight, which is not normally my game.

You know, I'm very aggressive.

and uh rant at the break at the first break i've got like 220 000 in chips or something and you start with 60k in that one wow so randall's like you have 220 000 he's like bro you're chip leader and i'm like no way he's like go find anyone that says has a poker news credential and just go ask them hey how many uh just say hey uh is does anyone else have like over 200k yeah and just see what they say so i go up to a guy and i tell him and he's like you have 220 000 i said yeah i have 200 i think i had 226 or something like that yeah he goes your chip leader phil hellmuth has like 180 or something like no way so then they started writing about me then they come over there taking pictures like i've never had that it was kind of fun it was really cool you know and i just stayed up top you know and then i got my my mojo and i started to get some some swagger and i started talking which is kind of my game nice and uh yeah i had a good run

yeah it was fun tournaments are so fascinating um steven jones just came on yes yeah he got second in the world series main event Amazing.

It was crazy.

He won six and a half million.

Yeah, that's incredible.

And it's a 10-day tournament, dude.

Yeah.

Like, how do you stay so locked in for that long?

You have to stay so locked in.

You have to have to get lucky, too.

Yeah.

Right.

You can't have suckouts.

And if you do, you got to keep your wits in it, you know, and not let go on tilt.

That's what happens to me.

Like, if I lose a chip lead or I lose half of my stack or something, that's the part of my game I need to sharpen up.

You go on tilt.

It's really tough.

Yeah, I do.

Like, I feel like

I have to get it back quick.

And you don't.

You just got to be patient, but it's really hard sometimes

to remember that.

Yeah, it's similar to chess, man.

When I start losing a couple pieces, I start getting mad.

Yep.

You know, me too.

Yeah.

Damn.

Back to the UFC, though.

Are you a big fan?

Do you have any fighters?

You sport a lot?

Yeah, I mean, I love Connor.

Still my favorite.

Yeah, still my favorite.

Wow, that's a true fan right there.

Yeah, I know.

I wish she kind of would go back to like funny Connor instead of like, sometimes I feel like he seems a little bitter, like in the the social media and stuff

but you know what I don't know what it's like to go from welfare to a hundred million dollar net worth or even more insight

his company right right proper 12 right so it's like I don't know what that's like to worth be worth that kind of money going from

How far down he was to how far up he is to then also the fame and stuff.

So it's like, it's easy to hate.

Like, who knows what you would be like?

I mean, I like to think I'd be the same, but I don't know.

It's tough to put yourself in those shoes.

But he's still, he's exciting to watch, and I like the buildup.

I like GSP, you know, George St.

Pierre.

Those are probably my top two.

Right now, if you were going to say Connor's not like current and you were going to pick some fighters, I mean, there's so many guys that are great.

Like, I like Sugar Sean.

Yeah.

You know, I like...

He just came in your studio.

Yeah, he was just, I wasn't here, sadly, but yeah, yeah.

He came in for someone else.

show.

You know I'm busy if I can't be here to meet Sugar Sean.

I like Random Reno.

He does his show here.

I like Sean Strickland.

There's a lot of guys.

There's a lot of

exciting fighters now.

It's a good time in MMA.

Absolutely.

If you had to do power slap against someone, who would it be?

Oh, man.

I don't know if I could do it.

I think those guys might be more crazy than the UFC fighters because you're just opting in to let somebody tee off on you with your hands behind your back.

Could you do it?

I couldn't do it.

I think there's like some brain damage.

Yeah, I couldn't do it.

I don't think it's worth it.

Is there an amount of money?

Million bucks, do you do it?

Yeah.

Million bucks, I let anybody smack the bus.

Depends on who.

Mike Tyson.

You're getting knocked out, bro.

Even at his age.

Is there an influencer that you would like to have a power slap with?

If I felt like they couldn't knock me out, I would consider it.

Okay.

But a knockout's like some permanent damage.

You know what I mean?

Like, I don't want to get knocked out.

Have you ever been knocked out?

No, have you ever been one time?

Wow, in a fight?

A fight that I didn't know I was in.

Oh, yeah.

he blindsided you uh yeah it was kind of weird on my birthday this is the night Tupac got shot okay a long time ago before you were born Sean yeah yeah like what 95 right I was born in 97 or 94 this was 94 95 or no 96 yeah this was 96 September 8th 1996 my birthday

I go to a strip club here in Vegas.

Which one?

The one across from, it was Hard Rock at the time.

So it was called

Club Paradise at the time.

Now it's called something else.

It's right across from Virgin now, which is old hard rock.

I go in this strip club and I was coming back from the bathroom.

I was with a bunch of buddies.

I'm coming back from the bathroom.

And there was this hot blonde dancer.

And so, you know, like you kind of pass a girl and you like look back at her or whatever, you know?

So I did that.

And when I looked back, she was pointing at me.

And I could read her lips because the music's loud.

And she yells like, that's him.

That's the one.

And I'm looking, now I'm looking behind me, like, who is she pointing at?

You know, but I didn't realize she's pointing at me.

Yeah.

But I didn't realize.

And then this huge bouncer that was standing next to her starts walking towards me and like big, like six foot five, just jacked, bald guy, like just looks like a monster.

And I remember him, he points at me.

He goes, what did you do?

And I remember backing up and I remember putting my hands up and I'm backing up from him.

And I just remember saying, the last thing I remember is me saying, I didn't do anything.

I swear.

That's the last thing I remember.

Now the next thing I remember after that is there's a bunch of people standing around me and I'm on the ground and I'm getting up and I'm

and I walk, they walk me outside the club and they were like, do you need a ride home?

And I said, no, I'm I'm staying right over there.

And I point to the hard rock.

This was so new in the hard rocks existence.

There was a chain link fence around the parking lot and the parking lot was dirt or half of it, that side of it on the paradise side.

And I remember saying like, no, I'm staying right there.

I don't remember crossing the street.

I don't remember walking around the chain length fence to go to, and next thing I know, I'm at the front desk.

And the front desk manager comes up to me, or the, I didn't realize she was the front desk manager at the time, but whatever.

She comes up and she says, you know, can I help you?

And I said, I need a key to my room.

And she says, okay, just need

your name and your ID.

What's your name?

And I said, I don't know.

Damn.

Yeah.

And by the way, I don't remember this conversation.

She, the next day, told me about this conversation.

Wow.

Okay.

And so then she said, she said, well, do you have your license?

And I was like,

yeah.

And I reached into my pocket and she said that I said,

am I bleeding?

And she says, no.

And like the inside of my lip was like cut up.

Yeah.

And she said, are you all right?

And I said, I got hit.

And she said, someone hit you here?

And I said, I remember looking around and I was, because back then you could see the casino from the front desk.

And I said, no.

no, and I remember I reached in someone at the hard rock earlier that day gave us all passes for the strip club, like two-for-one entry.

Oh, yeah.

So I had a bunch in my pocket.

So I pulled out of my pocket and I handed her one of them.

And I said, I think I got hit here.

And she looks at, oh, and she's like, oh, you went to strip club.

But she's thinking I'm drunk.

Yeah.

You know, but I don't drink.

And I never drank.

Even back then.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So this guy that we had met earlier in that day that happened to have the room next to mine,

he sees me.

And so he cruises up to me and he's like, I got him, I got him.

He's standing right next to me, Dora, I got him.

You know, he's just drunk, whatever.

He hardly knows me.

I just literally met him.

You know how you meet people in Vegas, whatever.

So he walks me to my room, and this is like four o'clock in the morning.

So a lot of my friends had tapped out already and just the degenerates were at the strip club, you know, so like half of us.

So you were alone?

I was alone.

I was at the strip club with five people, but they didn't, I left to go to the bathroom where we were sitting.

So they didn't even know any of this has happened.

They don't even know I got beat up.

They know nothing.

They're still getting lap dancers or whatever.

They don't give a f ⁇ , you know?

So

my buddy opens the door and this guy says, Oh, your buddy's drunk.

And my friend says, No, it's impot.

Like, he doesn't, no way.

Like, he doesn't drink.

Birthday or not.

No way.

Yeah.

You know, so I come in and my head's pounding.

And he says, you know, what happened?

And the bodyguard, the bouncer looked like, do you know who Jay Buner is?

You might be too young.

He was a baseball player that played right field when Ken Griffey Jr.

played center field for the Mariners.

He was the right fielder.

The bouncer looked just like Jay Bruner.

So I said, I think Jay Bruner beat me up.

And the guy, my buddy, he's like, Jay Bruner was at the strip club.

I'm like, no, it was like a bouncer or something.

I really didn't know what happened.

My head was pounding.

Now the paramedics come to the room because the front desk lady got nervous about me.

So it sends the paramedics.

So they, I remember they said to me, I do remember all this now.

I remember them saying, I'm going to tell you to go.

I'm going to tell you I want you to go to the store and pick up three things.

And then I'm going to ask you some more questions.

And then I want you to tell me what were the three things I told you to get from the store.

I said, Okay.

So he says, I want you to get a loaf of bread, a carton of milk, and a dozen eggs.

And then he starts asking me my name, you know, and I'm like,

I couldn't remember my last name.

He's like, who's the president?

I said, I don't know.

He said, what city are you in?

I said, Vegas.

I knew that.

He's like, where were you tonight?

And I said, Strip Club.

He said, What's it called?

I don't know.

He said, Okay, what did I tell you to get from the store?

And I said, A loaf of eggs, a carton of bread, and 12 milks.

And he was like, you have a concussion.

So, yeah,

it was crazy.

Wait, so the bouncer knocked you out?

So the next day, I fly back to L.A.

I missed my morning flight.

I couldn't do it.

My head was pounding.

I just couldn't do it.

So I had one buddy stay back with me, my buddy Gio, who you might know who hosts Fitness Jump.

He's a big black guy.

What's the point of being in a strip club with a big black guy if he's not protecting you, Sean?

So

we end up taking this late flight home, and it was bugging me now two days later.

Like, what happened?

Like, why did this happen to me?

So I call the hard rock and that's when I speak to the lady at the front desk.

And she tells me that whole story that I just told you about the interaction.

So I call the strip club.

I said, hi, you know, my name's John Orlando.

I think your bouncers like beat me up the other night.

He said, oh, you're the guy.

Hold on.

Let me get the managers.

Okay.

So manager comes on the phone.

He's like, yeah, how you doing, man?

I said, well, I'm just kind of wondering what happened.

He said, well, you know, unfortunately, what happened is you grabbed one of the girls.

and i said uh-uh no chance like not my style like no way he's like well you know alcohol gets the best of us sometimes i said listen to me i don't drink i do stand-up comedy i've been coming to this vegas since my dad's morgan in vegas my whole life i know how vegas rolls yeah i don't step out of line certainly not in a strip club promise you i don't drink and then it started to click i remembered the guy in front of me there was a there was this guy in front of me that he was looking back at her too i think what happened so he said the guy accused me of grabbing the dancer's crotch, like kind of like I walked by and maybe I grabbed her, whatever.

And I'm like, actually, I think the guy in front of me did it because he looked back too.

Like we both, but I thought we were both looking back at like the hot girl.

Yeah, yeah.

I think he grabbed her, but I'm taller than him.

So when I looked back,

she thought I grabbed her and like was looking back to see what her reaction was.

And she thought that I did it.

That's what I think happened.

So I said, okay, so I said, the last thing I remember was, was backing up.

You know, I don't remember the guy swinging.

He said, well, I don't know who swung at you first or whatever.

He said, but by the time I got over there,

you were on the ground and like other people had jumped in.

So he's like, one, one of our customers was like kicking you in the head and someone else was like kicking you in the ribs.

Jeez.

I don't remember any of that.

And he's like, and then the bouncers were just breaking it up.

So I don't know if maybe if it was, maybe the dancers' friends, maybe she said, that guy grabbed me and they came after me from behind.

Yeah.

You know, so while I I was backing up from the, you know, I don't know, I don't know.

I don't know.

Wow.

Hack then there's no security cameras.

There was cameras, but so it's kind of funny you brought this up.

So I had a really bad gambling problem back then.

Like just blackjack would get the best of me all the time.

So my mom had asked me, please don't go to Vegas on your birthday.

Like don't don't have another like gambling meltdown.

So I was like, I promise I won't.

I promise I won't go to Vegas.

So I didn't want to tell her that I came to Vegas and like start with like lawsuits and sh ⁇ , because then I'd have to come clean.

I didn't want to upset mom.

So I just.

Oh, so you let it go.

I let it go.

Damn.

Because you could have got some money for that.

I could have got a lot of money.

If this happened, and also I was a little naive back then, Sean.

I didn't realize how much money I could have got.

A lot.

A lot.

Probably a million days.

At least.

Yeah, because that's head damage.

Yeah, for sure.

Like if you went to a doctor, got a brain scan, you could have claimed because anything with the brain, you could get a ton of 100%.

Yeah.

But, you know, I didn't.

Live and you learn.

You live and you learn.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you had some big gambling issues, though?

Back then, yeah.

I mean, I had some crazy, yeah.

You're an all-in type of guy.

Yeah, I used to be.

Now, you know, I used to do stand-up comedy.

And so it's like the combination of growing up, even though I came out semi-normal, I didn't, like we talked about, famous dad, didn't get into like drugs and alcohol and all that.

Definitely gambling was my vice.

Didn't respect money.

You know, when you do stand-up comedy for 10 years, you're making, I was making anywhere from $1,500 all the way up to $7,500 in a night.

The average was probably 2,500.

So I didn't do a lot of comedy clubs.

I had like a reverse career because of my dad, luckily, you know?

So I started by opening for him.

So the first time I was ever on stage was to 2,000 people.

Holy for my dad.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

I was supposed to just do five minutes.

Five minutes is all I was supposed to do.

And Sean, I went through my material in probably two minutes, sweating like a pig, talking so fast.

Entertainment tonight was there videoing it.

And like, they couldn't even find, it was so bad they couldn't even find like the five to ten seconds to put on the air wow they did but what they put on there was like terrible like i was awful i mean awful embarrassingly awful i mean it's your first time first time yeah you know i never didn't that was literally my open mic i'm surprised if he didn't scare you off from doing it i just kept at it my dad was super supportive like don't worry my dad you know said like don't worry about laughs just just be likable up there like don't worry about laughs laughs will come yeah just be think think of yourself as the host of the evening and tell a couple jokes.

Welcome them for coming.

Dad's getting ready.

Blah, blah, blah.

Say a couple jokes and then fire him up.

You're more like a warm-up guy.

Don't think of it as like stand-up.

So once he said that, I kind of eased into it.

And then, you know, I eased my way through it.

You know, and by the time the end of the year came, I was doing like 15 to 20 minutes.

Still not.

I wouldn't say it was great.

I don't know if it was ever great, to be honest.

But 10 years, I was able to fake it through.

So I would open for guys like Tom Jones, Jones, Paul Anka, Deion Warwick, the Four Tops, The Temptations, just anyone that's in my dad's kind of category as a performer.

And I did that for 10 years.

And so I was in a lot of casino towns, you know.

So when you're working 15 minutes a night when you're opening for Tom Jones and Council Bluffs, Iowa for three nights, what else is there to do when you're at Harvey's Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa?

And you don't drink.

And I don't drink.

So blackjack, you know?

So it got to the point where uh it was really bad like i was leaving i wasn't coming home with the paychecks you know i was just working for free you know i was having a blast but i was also tormented by by this and then it got so bad at one point i got into the mob for about 50k in atlantic city

had a guy put a gun to my head in my dressing room and had a lot of crazy happen to me man and then and then uh when september 11th happened i mean i was almost at one point it was it was bad um and then when september 11th happened uh i had two friends that died in tower one.

And that was kind of my wake-up call.

I know that kind of sounds like cliche or whatever, but I realized how precious life was and that my problems, there's bigger problems that you could have.

And what the f am I doing?

Like, you know, get it together.

You know, and I just got it together.

So you completely stopped?

I completely stopped for two years.

Wow.

Nothing.

And then I...

had a real job.

I quit doing stand-up

and I started a PR firm.

And it wasn't until then that I realized what it really is to grind for the money.

Yeah.

You know, because everything came easy to me in life up until that point.

And then I respected the money.

And then once I respected the money, it changed how I gamble.

You know, and then I would test myself and like just play with friends.

You know, can I, am I capable of just betting 15 bucks a hand, 25 bucks a hand?

It doesn't have to be $500, $1,000, whatever.

Damn, you were doing $1,000 a hand?

Yeah.

That's 20 years ago.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

I went through a lot of money, a lot of cash.

Yeah.

um yeah it was it was bad like i had saved a lot of money from stand-up yeah but relative to what i was making i should have had millions wow you were making millions from stand-up well over 10 years so so i was making anywhere from 20 to 50 000 a month at one point damn i didn't know the money was that good in stand-up well it's not unless you're an opening act for guys like tom jones or or whatever you know so you got to be in there yeah yeah you know now i know i honestly don't know what it's what it's like you know i don't i don't even know what the pay is like, but back then, yeah, I mean, you get minimum $1,500 for a night, so you do three nights a week.

Solid, you know,

dude, you got a crazy story, man.

I had no idea.

Yeah.

But we got to wrap up.

Anything you want to close off with?

Man, it's a privilege to be on with you.

You know, I thank you for being so supportive of the studio.

And

it's been great getting to know you.

And, you know, I love everything you've been doing.

Thanks, man.

You get some insane guests.

And, yeah,

I was hoping, you know, this was like almost like getting the call from Rogan to me.

Like, you know, you're like, hey, you want to do the show?

And I was like, I'll do it.

I love it.

Thank you.

So God.

Thank you.

You killed it, man.

Thanks for coming on.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

Thanks for watching, guys, and I'll see you tomorrow.