Taken from JRE #1965 w/David Choe:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0E9d9ia1llG1J8WPx9VYLE?si=c3b593e1df54478f

Without making light or trying to be disrespectful, like, if the things that I tried to figure out, like a game, like a video game was sex, money, power, right?

Like, as an artist, I had subscribed to the starving artist like type right it was like Top Ramen you know holes in your clothes like like homeless like I was like That is what a real artist is.

Until I was like, oh shit, you can have a manager and an agent and an office and you can not starve.

And I remember at that point, I was in my early 20s.

I was like, man, people sure talk about money a lot.

in marriages and business and I go, it doesn't seem that hard to me as some and I'm saying this as a guy in my 20s that's poor.

I'm like, what if I just like, try to be as rich as possible for the next 10 years or 5 years?

Like what if that's my singular focus and so I Did it and it you know, it was a lot of work But like the video game for of money is over for me now, right?

Like I like at every industry gambling the stock market like even like people go oh that's like this Korean Forrest Gump and he just he was like this like this homeless guy that like that got lucky with Facebook I'm like that was like a lot of work to make that happen, you know?

And I was already kind of wealthy when I made that deal, but people like to tell that story.

I made millions of dollars with Facebook, and it was a lot of hard work, but I'm like, it's kinda, if I wanted to, you tell me how cringe I sounded, I'll just stop, but I'm like, It's not gonna be that hard for me to become a billionaire at a certain level, right?

I'm like, if that's my goal now, if that's my video game, and then I know billionaires.

I mean, Sean Parker and Mark being the most, but I know tons of like secret billionaires, right?

And I go, I don't want any of their lives

I like just money you don't have to have their life right to have money

you don't have to think about money if you have it

that's the problem with money is People become obsessed with it because it's so difficult to attain and there's so much Societal value

that it becomes the thing instead of a thing

I mean I have I have a friend that has like hundreds of billions of dollars.

Yeah, and you know how weird those guys are, right?

And I said, we're having dinner and I was like, feeling confident.

I'm not gonna go buy cars and houses He's like what do you want to what do you want to do with that?

He's like Dave I don't know if you know how money works.

to someone and ask them for a billion I go motherfucker.

I will take that 1 billion and he's like dude you got to come to me with like I'm not saying no But you got to have a better.

You know you got a you got a you got a hat like how you gonna I go I promise you

I will spend it like Like the most irresponsible possible like it'll be like exactly because most of these people that have billions are like geniuses and they spent Everything is down to a fraction and they they just grind and crunch numbers in their brain and that's not how I think.

I think very abstract, I think, and I go, I'm gonna do stuff that on paper makes absolutely no sense and I promise you I will change the planet with that money.

Like I'm gonna do shit that, and then he was like, he didn't say no, but He was thinking it over and he's like dude

There's like there's no way like my money guys are gonna do this and

then I sat there and I thought about it because money Is power I was like dude, I don't want a billion dollars

and ultimately he was like and no and I was like, thank you.

So just a wild thought Yeah, spontaneous.

Yeah, if he had given it to me he would have

he would have fucked I would have been like those weird people.

You would have tried it out for a while Right.

You would have tried it out for a while and then you would have gone back to being you.

Right and then so So that has that game of that video game of money has no no it's not fun for me anymore because I've so years ago like

was my last art show where I actually sold stuff for money and and I didn't feel good.

It was like, my galler, Steve Lazaridis is like Banksy's, Banksy's a guy and he's like, Cho, like you're on fire, street art's on fire right now.

I go, it's gonna be in LA, it has to be in LA.

It has to be on Rodeo Drive like it has to be on the most expensive street in the world and I want like every celebrity there and like, you know, and so It did it happened It's like it was a show in Beverly Hills all the celebrities came all the fancy people came I sold all the art and the next day I didn't feel any different and and then at that point, the artist gets objectified to just, I got a Basquiat,

I got a Cho, I got a Banksy, and I'm like, the guy That's buying my art that can afford it.

He just wants to like it's a dick contest, right?

He's just want to show off like hey, I got a cho and I'm like I'm pretty sure that's not what the universe wants for me to like just make expensive stuff So at that point I told my manager and everyone I work with I'm like Everything now is free like painting with kids painting with guys just out of jail painting with at-risk youth Murals music anything where it's free.

I'm not You know, or if I like like someone I'll just trade or give it to them But I'm not selling shit anymore so that kind of like ended like you know and then I had finance guys and everything about Wealth management is about how to preserve wealth and make more money.

And I go, let's do like a Monte Carlo simulation and figure out when I'm gonna die by my lifestyle of how I live.

And let's get it down so that I have 0 by the time I'm done.

So every business decision I've made since I've made that decision is I just lose money.

I just lose money and then The video game of sex which I wasn't very good at is age 0 to 30 I'd been with 5 6, maybe 7 girls like and they were all like long-term kind of relationships there was no like one-night stands and then at that point like

I'm not, and like the same way, if you saw me in my 20s as like a street urchin, like street kid and he's like, I'm gonna be the richest artist in the world.

You'd be like, you know what the odds of that happening are?

In the same way, and like not to sound vulgar or, you know, objectify women, but that's what I did at that age.

I was young and I was like, I'm tired of the Asians are like sexless, small dick, you know, the the math nerd, like I want to fuck the most amount of women as possible and that was even more ridiculous than me saying I want to be the richest artist and then And then I just went on a tear for a decade, right?

Like I just, it was awkward at first, and then like a video game at the end, a combination of like, like a comedian working out their material, right?

And with the oncoming social media and all the, you know, internet stuff, I could figure out on the dates I've been on which material killed.

Like what did I say to make what girl laugh and you know, and I would have all those Like a crazy person like in my notes folders and I could say the perfect combination of words To make a girl laugh or like so using everything at my disposal anything like money You know fun a charm like jokes Power like I'll get you on this thing, or like just cuing in on what is it that you want and I can get you that.

And you know I was sleeping with multiple women a day and I was like this, like you would never believe I, okay not you, I would never believe what I was doing like I was every night tens tens tens like Victoria's Secret models a list celebrities just like I was like whoa whoa whoa and You know I got to a point where I was like, I wasn't, my friends and I debate, they're like, you were like a week away from sucking dick.

like, it's probably like more like 2 days away.

Like I was just like in rooms, like having threesomes, group sex, and I was like,

you know, and my parents were convinced I was.

Like I was in a car going to an art show with my parents in Mexico City, and my mom, you know, she's like completely invested in my career and she's like, hey you know Andy Warhol used to do like 10, 20 push-ups and then his mom would give him like a snicker bar.

I was like that's an interesting fact mom I didn't know that and he was gay and I was like oh okay cool.

You know Leonardo Da Vinci when he used to go out like he would no 1 would know he's an artist.

He wouldn't have, like, a speck of paint on him.

And I was like, what, what, where's this going?

And then my dad's in the front driving, he's like, he's not gay!

And my mom's like, you know We're Christian and you know, but we know that you're an artist and we know you haven't brought a woman home in like 10 years so

of the closet and I was like, and I was like, I, I, like, I love being gay so much.

Like, I, I'm not, like, I just, I almost wish I was, right?

Like, I, when I play like Dungeons and Dragons or a role-playing game or a RPG, like video game, or anytime I act or do anything that's like online or like a game I always want to be a gay guy like I just love it I love that feeling I want to play gay guys if you know and but

I just don't love dick I want to I want to love it but

I just why do you want to I just like part of it is like I my shame makes me shameless and like I like it when it hurts kind of thing, like I just, I got close where there was a transsexual woman, I think her name was Evelyn, like her penis was right here And I

I should just like at least lick it or touch it

At least just to say I tried it and I could say

I didn't like it or I did like it But I just couldn't I was like I was so bored not of just pussy or women or whatever, I just was bored of the endeavor

And then, you know, you meet people and everyone has their game, like Hollywood people, like I get that Emmy or that Oscar or, you know, and so I Like pick the game I want to play money pow and then it's like I sit here and The thing that I learned the number 1 important lesson from gambling is get out while you're ahead Is like I love how much money I have right now.

I love that Like I have no regrets like I've had sex with so many different women that like I'm just I don't need that anymore I'm so I could be a monk for the rest of my life if I want to you know, like and so there's only 1 final quest and that's the spiritual quest, right?

And that's where, like, people say shit like, the answer is love and it's like, it is, right?

Like, like, Like there will be shit, there's shit that we talked about before we start recording that we can't, and then there will be shit that we talk about later.

And we live in this world now where it's like, it's a crazy world, right?

And everyone says it, and it's in movies, and it's in books, but it's what does that path look like and so I go towards where I feel that and I feel that in Africa when I go to Africa, I feel that like in my soul to my bones and You know I look like this in Austin and no 1 judges me like you would think going to Africa the places I go where there's no Asians that they would say shit, but they don't they just accept me.

They take me in They show me their lives and they're like you're just part of our tribe now and I'm like it makes me want to cry you know so and the fact that you know I have this beautiful relationship with you and you know you let me talk about this stuff and then those words get to you know like I don't know Logan Paul that

guy calls me up right after the show, he's like, take me to Africa, bro,

I'm like, okay, you know, like, and it's just a tremendous thing.

And then, you know, we made this film and it's,


Speaker 0: The Jorogun Experience

Speaker 1: Without making light or trying to be disrespectful, like, if the things that I tried to figure out, like a game, like a video game was sex, money, power, right? Like, as an artist, I had subscribed to the starving artist like type right it was like Top Ramen you know holes in your clothes like like homeless like I was like That is what a real artist is. Until I met a successful artist. Until I was like, oh shit, you can have a manager and an agent and an office and you can not starve. And I remember at that point, I was in my early 20s.

I was like, man, people sure talk about money a lot. It seems to be this thing that causes

Speaker 2: a lot of problems

Speaker 1: in marriages and business and I go, it doesn't seem that hard to me as some and I'm saying this as a guy in my 20s that's poor. I'm like, what if I just like, try to be as rich as possible for the next 10 years or 5 years? Like what if that's my singular focus and so I Did it and it you know, it was a lot of work But like the video game for of money is over for me now, right? Like I like at every industry gambling the stock market like even like people go oh that's like this Korean Forrest Gump and he just he was like this like this homeless guy that like that got lucky with Facebook I'm like that was like a lot of work to make that happen, you know? And I was already kind of wealthy when I made that deal, but people like to tell that story.

So I made millions of dollars gambling. I made millions of dollars with my art. I made millions of dollars with Facebook, and it was a lot of hard work, but I'm like, it's kinda, if I wanted to, you tell me how cringe I sounded, I'll just stop, but I'm like, It's not gonna be that hard for me to become a billionaire at a certain level, right? Like I've amassed hundreds of millions. I'm like, if that's my goal now, if that's my video game, and then I know billionaires.

I mean, Sean Parker and Mark being the most, but I know tons of like secret billionaires, right? And I go, I don't want any of their lives

Speaker 2: I don't want I don't want any like

Speaker 0: I like just money you don't have to have their life right to have money

Speaker 2: right

Speaker 0: you don't have to think about money if you have it

Speaker 1: right

Speaker 0: that's the problem with money is People become obsessed with it because it's so difficult to attain and there's so much Societal value

Speaker 1: right

Speaker 0: put on being wealthy

Speaker 1: right

Speaker 0: that it becomes the thing instead of a thing

Speaker 1: I mean I have I have a friend that has like hundreds of billions of dollars.

Speaker 0: And hundreds of billions.

Speaker 1: Like 1 of the, you know.

Speaker 0: I have 1 too.

Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know how weird those guys are, right? They're weird guys.

Speaker 1: And I'm pretty close with him. He's not just like a, you know. And I said, we're having dinner and I was like, feeling confident. I was like, give me 1. He's like, what?

I was like, give me 1.

Speaker 0: 1000000000.

Speaker 2: And he's like, I don't understand. Yeah, I was

Speaker 1: like give me 1 billion. He's like

Speaker 2: I was like motherfucker. You know I don't need it like you know. I'm not gonna go buy cars and houses He's like what do you want to what do you want to do with that? He's like Dave I don't know if you know how money works. You don't just go up

Speaker 1: to someone and ask them for a billion I go motherfucker. I just did and he's like well. Do you have a plan? Are you gonna show me charts and graphs? I was like no It's all gonna be instinct

Speaker 2: I will take that 1 billion and he's like dude you got to come to me with like I'm not saying no But you got to have a better. You know you got a you got a you got a hat like how you gonna I go I promise you

Speaker 1: I will spend it like Like the most irresponsible possible like it'll be like exactly because most of these people that have billions are like geniuses and they spent Everything is down to a fraction and they they just grind and crunch numbers in their brain and that's not how I think. I think very abstract, I think, and I go, I'm gonna do stuff that on paper makes absolutely no sense and I promise you I will change the planet with that money. Like I'm gonna do shit that, and then he was like, he didn't say no, but He was thinking it over and he's like dude

Speaker 2: There's like there's no way like my money guys are gonna do this and

Speaker 1: then I sat there and I thought about it because money Is power I was like dude, I don't want a billion dollars

Speaker 2: I don't want that responsibility

Speaker 1: and ultimately he was like and no and I was like, thank you.

Speaker 0: So just a wild thought Yeah, spontaneous.

Speaker 1: Yeah, if he had given it to me he would have

Speaker 2: he would have fucked I would have been like those weird people. I was like, I don't want to touch that

Speaker 1: I don't want to touch that.

Speaker 0: You would have tried it out for a while Right. You would have tried it out for a while and then you would have gone back to being you.

Speaker 1: Right and then so So that has that game of that video game of money has no no it's not fun for me anymore because I've so years ago like

Speaker 0: 2009

Speaker 1: was my last art show where I actually sold stuff for money and and I didn't feel good. It was like, my galler, Steve Lazaridis is like Banksy's, Banksy's a guy and he's like, Cho, like you're on fire, street art's on fire right now.

Speaker 2: Like, what do you want

Speaker 1: to do? I go, it's gonna be in LA, it has to be in LA. It has to be on Rodeo Drive like it has to be on the most expensive street in the world and I want like every celebrity there and like, you know, and so It did it happened It's like it was a show in Beverly Hills all the celebrities came all the fancy people came I sold all the art and the next day I didn't feel any different and and then at that point, the artist gets objectified to just, I got a Basquiat,

Speaker 2: I got a Cho, I got a Banksy, and I'm like, the guy That's buying my art that can afford it. He doesn't care about the art. He just wants to like it's a dick contest, right?

Speaker 1: He's just want to show off like hey, I got a cho and I'm like I'm pretty sure that's not what the universe wants for me to like just make expensive stuff So at that point I told my manager and everyone I work with I'm like Everything now is free like painting with kids painting with guys just out of jail painting with at-risk youth Murals music anything where it's free. That's what I'm about. I'm not You know, or if I like like someone I'll just trade or give it to them But I'm not selling shit anymore so that kind of like ended like you know and then I had finance guys and everything about Wealth management is about how to preserve wealth and make more money. And I go, let's do like a Monte Carlo simulation and figure out when I'm gonna die by my lifestyle of how I live. And let's get it down so that I have 0 by the time I'm done.

Like I wanna, and they're like, ssss. So every business decision I've made since I've made that decision is I just lose money. I just lose money and then The video game of sex which I wasn't very good at is age 0 to 30 I'd been with 5 6, maybe 7 girls like and they were all like long-term kind of relationships there was no like one-night stands and then at that point like

Speaker 0: 2930

Speaker 1: I was like I'm really not good at this. Like I don't got any game. I'm not, and like the same way, if you saw me in my 20s as like a street urchin, like street kid and he's like, I'm gonna be the richest artist in the world. You'd be like, you know what the odds of that happening are? Like it's, it's ridiculous.

In the same way, and like not to sound vulgar or, you know, objectify women, but that's what I did at that age. I was young and I was like, I'm tired of the Asians are like sexless, small dick, you know, the the math nerd, like I want to fuck the most amount of women as possible and that was even more ridiculous than me saying I want to be the richest artist and then And then I just went on a tear for a decade, right? Like I just, it was awkward at first, and then like a video game at the end, a combination of like, like a comedian working out their material, right? And with the oncoming social media and all the, you know, internet stuff, I could figure out on the dates I've been on which material killed. Like what did I say to make what girl laugh and you know, and I would have all those Like a crazy person like in my notes folders and I could say the perfect combination of words To make a girl laugh or like so using everything at my disposal anything like money You know fun a charm like jokes Power like I'll get you on this thing, or like just cuing in on what is it that you want and I can get you that.

And you know I was sleeping with multiple women a day and I was like this, like you would never believe I, okay not you, I would never believe what I was doing like I was every night tens tens tens like Victoria's Secret models a list celebrities just like I was like whoa whoa whoa and You know I got to a point where I was like, I wasn't, my friends and I debate, they're like, you were like a week away from sucking dick. And I was

Speaker 2: like, it's probably like more like 2 days away.

Speaker 1: Cause it just gets there, right? Like I was just like in rooms, like having threesomes, group sex, and I was like,

Speaker 2: I'm an artist, I should,

Speaker 1: you know, and my parents were convinced I was. Like I was in a car going to an art show with my parents in Mexico City, and my mom, you know, she's like completely invested in my career and she's like, hey you know Andy Warhol used to do like 10, 20 push-ups and then his mom would give him like a snicker bar. I was like that's an interesting fact mom I didn't know that and he was gay and I was like oh okay cool. You know Leonardo Da Vinci when he used to go out like he would no 1 would know he's an artist. He wouldn't have, like, a speck of paint on him.

Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, I didn't know

Speaker 1: that, Mom. And he was gay.

Speaker 2: And I was like, what, what, where's this going? And then my dad's in the front driving, he's like, he's not gay! I told you

Speaker 1: he's not gay! And my mom's like, you know We're Christian and you know, but we know that you're an artist and we know you haven't brought a woman home in like 10 years so

Speaker 2: just it's okay you could come out

Speaker 1: of the closet and I was like, and I was like, I, I, like, I love being gay so much. Like, I, I'm not, like, I just, I almost wish I was, right? Like, I, when I play like Dungeons and Dragons or a role-playing game or a RPG, like video game, or anytime I act or do anything that's like online or like a game I always want to be a gay guy like I just love it I love that feeling I want to play gay guys if you know and but

Speaker 2: I just don't love dick I want to I want to love it but

Speaker 1: I just why do you want to I just like part of it is like I my shame makes me shameless and like I like it when it hurts kind of thing, like I just, I got close where there was a transsexual woman, I think her name was Evelyn, like her penis was right here And I

Speaker 2: was like, it's right there. I should just like at least lick it or touch it

Speaker 1: At least just to say I tried it and I could say

Speaker 2: I didn't like it or I did like it But I just couldn't I was like I was so bored not of just pussy or women or whatever, I just was bored of the endeavor

Speaker 1: of that. And then, you know, you meet people and everyone has their game, like Hollywood people, like I get that Emmy or that Oscar or, you know, and so I Like pick the game I want to play money pow and then it's like I sit here and The thing that I learned the number 1 important lesson from gambling is get out while you're ahead Is like I love how much money I have right now. Like it's the perfect amount. I love that Like I have no regrets like I've had sex with so many different women that like I'm just I don't need that anymore I'm so I could be a monk for the rest of my life if I want to you know, like and so there's only 1 final quest and that's the spiritual quest, right? And that's where, like, people say shit like, the answer is love and it's like, it is, right?

Like, like, Like there will be shit, there's shit that we talked about before we start recording that we can't, and then there will be shit that we talk about later. And we live in this world now where it's like, it's a crazy world, right? And the answer is love. And everyone says it, and it's in movies, and it's in books, but it's what does that path look like and so I go towards where I feel that and I feel that in Africa when I go to Africa, I feel that like in my soul to my bones and You know I look like this in Austin and no 1 judges me like you would think going to Africa the places I go where there's no Asians that they would say shit, but they don't they just accept me. They call me brother.

They take me in They show me their lives and they're like you're just part of our tribe now and I'm like it makes me want to cry you know so and the fact that you know I have this beautiful relationship with you and you know you let me talk about this stuff and then those words get to you know like I don't know Logan Paul that

Speaker 2: guy calls me up right after the show, he's like, take me to Africa, bro,

Speaker 1: take me. I'm like, okay, you know, like, and it's just a tremendous thing. And then, you know, we made this film and it's,

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Why David Choe Stopped Playing Life Like a Video Game