Rogan isn't afraid to talk about his opinions on everything from drugs to relationships and religion. In fact, that is pretty much what his act feels like; him simply speaking his mind as opposed to spouting off a series of pre-rehearsed jokes. I guess that free-flowing feeling is one of the reasons he has developed such a strong following despite his lack of mainstream air time. Rogan starts the evening off with talks about legalizing marijuana and growing old, but smoothly transitions into raising his daughter and the amount of responsibility that comes with that.
Of course, the topic of drugs are never too far from his mind as he goes back to talking about drug-free ads and why pot is a better and less harmful drug than cocaine and crack. To cause a bit more controversy, Rogan moves on to talk about evolution versus creationism and how many of our behaviors and our society stem from "left over monkey s#!t". One of the funniest segments in the show, at least in my opinion, involved his discussion of Dr. Phil and the bad advice the man has given. This flows rather smoothly (surprisingly enough) into a discussion about pleasuring oneself and the main show ends there.
Instead of an encore, the last 25 minutes of the show is a Q&A session with the audience as they ask everything from his work on Fear Factor and UFC to becoming a successful standup comedian and what Rogan's favorite book is. This segment of the DVD alone helped show how much of Rogan's act was simply him speaking his mind and not rattling off a bunch of funny anecdotes, since he expresses similar feelings in this more personal setting.
There are a couple of special features included on the Joe Rogan: Talking Monkeys in Space DVD. Both are essentially behind-the-scenes featurettes. One feels a bit more official as a real camera crew walks around and follows Rogan and his friends as they get ready for the show, while the other is merely the footage one of his friends captures with his own camera. Basically, one is an "official" behind-the-scenes featurette, while the other feels more like an underground look at what really goes on and what the group really discusses in their off hours.
In general, Joe Rogan's comedy is pretty funny and, as long as you don't get too easily offended or agree with a lot of his beliefs, it is definitely worth seeing. The odd thing is, that I'm not sure Talking Monkeys in Space will net Rogan too many new followers as the people most interested in this special are the ones that already like his work.
