INTERVIEW: Joe Rogan gets ready to question everything

Joe Rogan, the stand-up comedian most famous for Fear Factor, NewsRadio and The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, is a man interested in the bizarre. The TV host said he loves “fringe subjects,” and these subjects are the focus of his new reality series on Syfy, Joe Rogan Questions Everything.

Investigating several unexplained mysteries — everything from Bigfoot hybrids to weaponized weather — Rogan looks to prove/disprove some of the great legends and conspiracy theories in American culture. The series kicks off Wednesday, July 24 at 10 p.m.

“I’ve just always been a big fan of In Search Of, the old Leonard Nimoy show, and the Art Bell Radio Show,” Rogan said recently on a conference call with journalists. “I used to love that show even if it was really dumb. Like people could call up and … they could say, ‘I’m a time traveller,’ and Art Bell would go, ‘From what time?’”

Rogan said those old shows fascinated him as a child, and now he seems to have fond memories of searching for the unexplained. “And you would be listening in the car with a big, stupid smile on your face … listening to these people talk about these silly subjects,” he said. “For whatever reason, they’ve always fascinated me. I’ve been fascinated by mysteries and fringe subjects like that. I just think they’re fun.”

When Joe Rogan Questions Everything disproves an urban legend (which the show will likely do numerous times), there may be a feeling of disappointment on the part of the TV host. “When you talk to like legitimate scientists that are like shooting every possible hole in these ideas that, you know, you cling to like a child’s security blanket, yeah, there’s those moments [of disappointment] for sure,” he said. “Because there’s things that can be answered. There’s things that people want to believe in that there’s zero basis in fact, and in fact they’ve been thoroughly debunked by science.”

Let the debunking begin.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Joe Rogan Questions Everything premieres Wednesday, July 24 at 10 p.m. on Syfy. Click here for more information.