People: 'Fear Factor' host isn't Howard Stern yet

Associated Press
Published Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Joe Rogan isn't Howard Stern ... yet. But give him time. In any given week, you can catch the future king of all media on two of the tube's most polarizing programs, NBC's "Fear Factor" (at 8 p.m. Mondays) and Comedy Central's "The Man Show" (at 10 p.m. Sundays).

The former stand-up comic answers some silly questions from TV Guide Online.

TVGO: Which is scarier -- the stuff they come up with for people to do on "Fear Factor," or the fact that there are derelicts who are willing to do it?

Rogan: The fact that there are "soooooo" many people trying to get on the show is probably the scariest thing. ... They show up at the set and pound on the fence moaning for us to let them on the show. We tell them that there's a huge list of people trying to get on and that they would have to submit to a series of extensive medical examinations, but it's like they don't even hear us. They don't care. They're like zombies in "Night of the Living Dead," clawing at the fence, yelling out from what sounds like a mouth full of Jell-O and gravel, "Fear is not a factor for me!" It's just awful.

TVGO: Eating disgusting things has become a regular feature of "Fear Factor." What's the grossest thing you've ever ingested?

Rogan: The last State of the Union Address.

TVGO: Which has been a tougher acting challenge -- pretending to work at a radio station on "NewsRadio" or pretending not to loathe the contestants on "Fear Factor?"

Rogan: Eighty percent of the people that come on the show are nice folks that want to have a good time and try to win some money. If it was all them, it would be the coolest job on the planet. However, at least 20 percent of them are scary, dumb people that I would never hang out with in real life, and I have to talk to them on camera without running away screaming. And sometimes these people win, and I have to pretend to be happy for them. That's some real acting, my friend.