Rogan tells me that the kind of comics he’s putting up aren’t afraid to touch what he calls “third rail stand-up.” And that’s what he lives for. “When people do risky subjects, it’s my favorite shit,” he says. “We don’t do it as an alternative to comedy. We do it because that is comedy.”

The Mothership, says Rogan, represents his “take” on L.A.’s Comedy Store—the club known for launching the likes of Richard Pryor, David Letterman, and Robin Williams, and the place that gave Rogan his first shot at the mic. He says his vision is to build a club “set up for comedians,” with a strong open mic program that won’t throw performers under the bus for their material.

Which sounds like a low bar. But, then again, this is 2023: by now we are used to clubs and networks canceling acts. In 2018, ABC canceled Roseanne Barr’s eponymous sitcom within hours after she tweeted that a senior Obama adviser looked like a Planet of the Apes “baby.” In 2019, Saturday Night Live cut comedian Shane Gillis before he’d ever even appeared on the show because of how he once described New York City’s Chinatown on a podcast. Last year, a Minneapolis comedy club refused to book Dave Chappelle over his previous material regarding trans people.

All three of these comedians have performed at the Mothership in the two months it’s been open.

[I’d like to think that Austin’s chill enough to sustain this. Color me somewhat skeptical, but willing to be convinced. — Ed]