Locked In with Ian Bick - Prison Survival: Paying For Protection For My Son | Michael Bick Pt. 2

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

In this 100th episode of "Locked In," Ian's dad returns for a special celebration! He reflects on the past year, shares his all-time favorite episode highlights, and answers listener questions. Get ready for a thought-provoking discussion on the intense world of paying for protection in prison and Michael Bick's thoughts on what he had to do for Ian to survive. Join us for an action-packed, insightful episode that's bound to leave a lasting impression! Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Connect with Michael Bick: https://www.somethingsfishycatering.com/michael-bick Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:32 - Reflections on the Unjust System 00:05:12 - A Comparison to Donald Trump's Case 00:07:50 - From Athlete to Entertainer 00:10:18 - Reflecting on the Journey 00:12:46 - Looking at the Good in the Criminal Justice System 00:15:30 - The Importance of Understanding a Child's Experience 00:18:20 - The Impact of Parenting and Perception 00:21:06 - Jealousy and Stigma around People with Criminal Records 00:23:38 - The Power of Podcasts and Influencer Marketing 00:26:07 - The Importance of Connection and Friendship 00:28:39 - Childhood Memories and Family Pride 00:31:15 - Tyson Bites and House Parties 00:36:49 - Reflections on Prison Life and Future Plans 00:39:25 - The Value of College Education 00:41:59 - Favorite Episodes 00:44:34 - Reminiscing on the Commissary Cook Off 00:49:33 - A Fun and Different Episode with Dad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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7,500 miles per year, expire 6126. Who available at this payment? PH 71529, pH 711465. The topic of paying for protection, I got a funny question for you. At what point did you realize Ian was either giving the cheeks or paying for protection? Giving the cheeks.

I was always worried that Ian was falsely giving the cheeks. But I knew that if it cost me 100 a week to prevent him from turning over his cheeks, I was going to fork over 100 a week, whatever it costs. I couldn't think of a more fitting guest than my dad to join me on the show as we celebrate one year of the podcast in our milestone 100th episode of Lockton. He was my second ever guest on the podcast and the incredible support and affection you all showed for that episode meant the world to me. With our brand new studio, a year's worth of valuable experience, and a growing audience of dedicated listeners, I'm honestly thrilled to present this special episode to you. and listen up if you are interested in coming on the show to share your story, whether you are a former addict, inmate, or if you experience a loved one in prison, work as an attorney, or in another profession that surrounds a fascinating world of the criminal justice system,

I'd love to have you on the show. Do me a favor and go to e.nbick.com and fill out the booking forum, and we'll get in touch with you and scheduled as soon as possible. Sit back, relax, and get ready to lock in with my father, Michael Bick. Pops. Hi. Welcome to the new studio. I'm so excited to be here, man. I can't stop laughing. It makes me feel kidding. Yeah, you've been chasing me down to do this interview all week. I've blown you off a couple times because I've been sick in bed and I need to postpone you. I got a haircut for this and everything, you know, trying to look my best. Luckily, you're local and you could just show up.

There's no travel expenses, I'm sorry. How much are you billed me? Let me see. Coffee was 369. So the last time we had, you were our second guest ever on the show a year ago now when we were at the old studio in Poughkeepsie. And we were at the old set. You were in an uncomfortable chair. But now we upgraded.

You got a nice chair and you were just comparing yourself to Chevy Chase. Exactly. I mean, I'm a star. You said you're in his age group too. Yeah, we are. We got the senior citizens at the point. Your peers. Yeah, you guys should start hanging out.

I got my A-A-A-A-A-A-R-P card. I'm good. So everyone really loved your episode. I still get comments to this day about how they loved your episode so much. They just, they know you're an OG, you're a rock star dad, you know? You know, that whole episode was very emotional for me. I had to prevent myself from actually crying different. aspects of that because the whole incident was so traumatic.

So, you know, it's a different time now. It's a much better time. How do you think you feel about things now, looking back on everything? Do you think your opinion has changed in the past year, seeing as how what good has come out of it? No. I think going to prison was still sucky. I think it was something that could have been avoided.

And I think the government pursued you where somebody in your situation should have gotten house arrest. And that was it. My opinion about the government and your situation has not changed one iota. And why do you think that is? Is it because, like, you watch, like, I know, like, you'll always look at, like, politicians and people in the news that get a lot less time for a lot greater situations. And that always gets you fired up. Sometimes I can't watch it. Your mother said, let's just shut this off.

Because I get on a rant about how fucked up the government is in the justice system, which is really the unjust system. It's not justice. It's only justice for people who have tons and tons of money. Yeah. Everybody else doesn't matter. White, black, Hispanic, no money, you're fucked. I think, and that's something I've definitely really. too when I watch the news because I always get pissed off seeing some cases.

I mean, like look at the Sam Bankman-Fried case. How he was out, I mean, he eventually got caught. He's fucked now. But just being on bonded, all those accommodations with his parents and this or that, they would never do that for anyone that didn't have that kind of money and power. Forget that's Sam Bankman. Forget that. Look at our present Republican nominee, not nominee yet.

the shit he says, the shit he does, if it was you and I threatening somebody, we'd be locked up. Well, yeah, and, you know, politics aside, let's put it into perspective, they literally were trying to revoke my bond over posting on social media. And I think this is very important to cover. And this is all politics aside, but when you compare Donald Trump's case to my case, they banned me from social media. The federal government banned me from social media saying, that I would tamper with witnesses.

So exactly what Donald Trump is doing now, they said me, an 18-year-old kid at the time would do. They banned me, and they almost put me in jail. I wasn't allowed on social media for a year during my case and tried to put me in jail multiple times for trying to circumvent that and go on social media. You know, all politics aside, he's a rapist, and they were trying to close down your club

because young women were running around in sports bras. Yeah. In your club. Let's get on another topic. I mean, when this thing gets made into a TV show or a movie, it's going to come out about the craziness of my case and just the ins and outs. But every time I see something about Trump and the posting, it's just like nothing against him. It's just like, you know, how they treated me about the same thing is crazy. It's disgraceful.

Yeah, it really is. It's disgraceful. That's all. And you were this young kid. who thought he knew everything and knew very little. Yeah, I did. I still think I know a lot, but, you know, I've learned it every day. I think I'm a lot more humble now, and I'm a lot more like a...

You definitely are. I'm a lot more mature, and I've learned a lot even the last year. I've come a long way in the last year. You're a different person. Yeah. You know, you're a stand-up guy, and you listen to people, you don't walk around with a puff chest with an attitude. It's not you.

I just want to always do the right thing is what I'm focusing on. Well, it makes me happy. It makes me happy to see you Ian Bick now. Well, thank you, pops. Ian Bick in the past made me nervous, got me upset many times. Yeah, but even some of my decisions now, like when I came to you and it said, hey, I'm going to start boxing. What was your reaction when I said, hey, I'm getting into boxing?

He's a fucking idiot. That was exactly my thought. I'm not sure I said that to you. I just said that was a bad idea. But the thought in my head, he's a fucking idiot. He's got this pretty face and he wants to get his nose bashed in. And I outgrew it. I did it once.

I got in the ring. You know, it was fun. But now, like, my eyes are set differently because I realized how I need to protect my body to be able to do what I'm doing now. Like, everyone has their own purpose and passion and what they're good at in life. I'm not an athlete, and I'll acknowledge that.

But I do have this gift and ability to interview and build what I have now, and I'm doing that. And then I'm building, like, the studio business on the side. We knew at a young age you weren't at an athlete. I went to lots of your soccer games. What's the truth you got to say about those? Because you used to lie to me back in the day about how well I did. You got something to say now? You're supposed to say that to your kid.

What you were good at and still good at, you're an entertainer. Yeah. And you were always good as an entertainer. And when you were in high school and growing up, I mean, I think even before high school, those Milton Burrell outfits used to crack me up. I used to dress up as a girl. Yeah. Yeah, I'd dress up as a girl and go on theater on stage. And even maybe the performing comes from the blacking.

at sports because I was so bad at sports, that was kind of like a performance too. Yeah, I mean, you certainly garnered everybody's attention. The basketball games. But you want to know something? Yeah. My sister and I, we lived in an apartment

in Brooklyn, and my father was an attorney, but we had wigs in the closet for dress-up, and when we were sick, my father would go into the closet and come out looking like Milton Burrow, in a wig and stuff like that. So when I saw you doing that, it said, oh, God, it's in our blood.

But anyway, I'm proud of you now. You're doing amazing. I mean, I always wanted you to be successful. You were always striving. I mean, and you're on your path to great success. It makes me proud. You know, I was thinking about the other day is not many people in the world get to sit with their parent in this environment.

Like I was looking at the episode we did the first time, which I personally don't really like those first few episodes because of the angles, and I'm just like reading question after question. I know it's great content, and people loved it, and they really loved your answers. And for anyone listening, they should check out that second episode of Locked in last year, you know, to really get that you talked a lot about the case in my situation, your thoughts and feelings,

and what they got out of that was how great of a love you have for your children. And but what I'm getting at is not everyone gets to experience this with their parent. Like this is going to live forever. That first episode we did, your HBO Max interview that you did for my documentary, and then now this episode. Like this is all, like this is, it's great, you know. Like I can always reflect back on this. My kids will have something to see you in a setting for, you know,

It's cool to think about. Yeah, it's something I didn't think about because in the moment it was the HBO document when we first started this was the first time somebody wanted to know my opinion and your mother's opinion. And it's the first time we actually got a chance or I actually got a chance to think about how I felt about the whole experience. and it was a chance and opportunity to self-reflect on what happened. Yeah, because for so long, people were just giving you a hard time and giving you shit in the paper, this and that. They never asked you how you felt.

Yeah, well, you know, I didn't care. I never cared about press. You and I feel the same way. Bad press is good press and good press is good press. It doesn't matter. There's no such thing as bad press. Yeah, so it didn't matter to me. I mean, those things.

It mattered more to your mother when she saw our name in. What she thought about the neighborhood, what they thought. My whole life I never cared about what other people thought. I just did what I needed to do. You know, it is something fun on the topic of press is that we talk about press. Danbury News Times was so quick to write a bad article about me. Everything. Every arrest, every liquor violation.

Now, crickets. But I guarantee you if I got arrested. tomorrow for anything. If I got a speeding ticket, I'm the front page of that paper. Yeah. What the fuck do they do it over there? It's a small town. It's a small town and they need sensationalism.

And success is not about sensationalism. Somebody's success doesn't really matter. And that applies to the criminal justice system that we're never, you know, focusing on the good people do after they come out of the system. And there's no follow up. Where's the follow-up? If someone gets arrested, we look at the bad, you know, we don't look at the good. It's amazing because of your show, how many people have come up to me and told me about their child's story or their father's story and said, it would be great.

And I said, call Ian, contact him. It's a great story. A recovery story is the story of the future. People need to recover from the tremendous impact any kind of addiction or prison term has on a person. I'm still amazed at how you have come out of your situation. You went in a young boy in the scariest possible situation. I was worried for you every day. I just couldn't imagine what that would be like.

and I mean I just saw that picture of you the other day that came up I looked at you and I said oh my god it hurt my heart but did you also know that you helped me get that cell phone I did I helped a great deal that for anyone that's just listening to this I put up a picture that one of my old bug baits took of me on a phone in the prison camp on a cell phone that I used to FaceTime you off of and call you guys and I'd watch words as a new black and I'd say, Dad, pay my phone bill. Exactly. Boy.

But, you know, the thing I learned is that corruption is everywhere. It's even, and it's worse in the prison. I mean, it was crazy. I mean, I can't even go into it. I'm just not going to. So something you just touched on was that you got to see a lot of insight on the system through my content. How does that help you as a parent for someone that's had a child incarcerated?

Because I think a lot of people are like, they're curious. They're like, why do adults who haven't been to prison before watch this show or what's the interest in the show? And you are a, you know, a 78 year old father of two who had a son. I look much younger. Look, everybody. Yeah, people don't believe you're 78. I looked like 60.

Come on. Look at me. But they believe, I mean, they're curious as to. why someone like yourself would be watching that. If they didn't know you had a son that went to prison, what are some takeaways that you learn and what advice would you give to other parents that are kind of like struggling to learn about their child's experience

because people that are in prison don't really like opening up about it? First of all, I'm fascinated by the people's individual stories. Some of those stories and how people survive are fascinating to me. It has nothing to do with you. I don't even know how you survived, okay, because we never talk about it. You never ask you, you never offer, you know, the closest we come to conversation about is this, you and I sitting here and a few other things. But I find that idea fascinating. And you find out how people have gotten into circumstances because of where they came from and how they were.

brought up and the kinds of hurdles they had to overcome and weren't able to. And each one of these stories, I find it touches something inside of me, it makes me sad about that. It makes me think about how we have to do something other than put people in prison when they make mistakes and people could think that the people who make most people in prison are evil or bad. Some people are there just by mistakes. Some people are just dumb and they get involved with the law.

And I think that anybody who sees this and sees what happens to somebody that goes through this, any parent, it's very sad. difficult. But I learned one thing through my experience that as long as there is family support, there's a light at the end of the tunnel for the person who goes to prison. The person who goes to prison needs to have support. And if they don't have family, we need to have social support, some sort of societal support so that people will succeed in their recovery and in our respect

I never let your idea of being in prison affect my support for you do you think that these stories also help shape better parents because we realize in a lot of these stories of individuals that come on the show is that they're they start the the bad path starts with their childhood, how they were raised, how they came up.

I think it affects certain parents. Certain parents just shouldn't be parents. And that's just the fact. Some people are not equipped to be a parent. Parenting is a full-time job aside from whatever other job you have. So it definitely shows the parents who are capable of supporting their children

or parenting differently affects them. And that it's a possible thing. I mean, I think that if it wasn't for my support, things would have been different for you. And that makes an impact on me. And hopefully parents will understand that when I say I supported my son unconditionally. And here, look,

he turned his life around. He's making a better life and helping other people. I think I had a party in that. And I think that viewing your podcast, people get an idea that parenting is a big deal. And parents should look at their children or even their spouse in a different light. Do you think people's perspective of you, of our family,

and of me have changed now that the podcast has became like a success in a way where it's out there. These videos are going viral. They're getting a lot of views and attention and like having people like Chevy Chase and Brandon Novak and these famous celebrities on the show. Do you think that that's starting to change the stigma of how they perceive it?

I think it's starting to change your stigma. I don't think it has much impact on me. I mean, people thought about me one way or the other. You went to jail. They felt sorry for me. Some people said, what kind of shitty parent you were. I mean, it all was the same. I don't think, I think the people who thought I was a shitty parent, thought I was a shitty parent.

If I had done better pairing thing, you wouldn't have gone to jail. I mean, I think those people haven't changed one bit. I think that the change is seen in what you've done, not what I've done. Yeah, but I wonder if, like, people are less, you know, they're more hesitant to, approach you and say something negative now when they see the success come from it. Well, I haven't gotten any negative approaches recently. Oh, that's good. You know, so I could say, yes, it's gotten better.

I mean, when you first were in the newspapers, somebody would say, oh, you are the parent of the criminal? And I'd say, I'm the parent of being big. What the fuck is wrong with people? People, all right. Like, would you ever say that to someone's parent, about someone's kid or anything? I would never bring it up. Yeah.

Like it just. I would never bring it up. How do people feel okay to do that? I think, you know, human nature is most people are jealous of other people. They don't want to look to themselves. They look at other people. They look at other people's success. they gauge who they are by other people.

It's like that old thing. I'm okay, you're not okay. Or I'm okay, you're okay. You know, it's like, okay, I want you to be successful, Ian, but damn it, I don't want you to be more successful than me. I mean, that's your friends. Those are most of your friends or people who are associated with you. That's society.

It's been fashioned by the media and capitalism, everything. Yeah. You know, so I learned that a long time ago when people would pat me on the back and said, you're really doing great. And then they talk behind my back and said, what the fuck is Bick doing there? Why is he doing that? Why? Because I'm working 24-7 to build my business.

That literally describes the neighborhood Lake Wabica that we grew up into a tea. The neighbors coming over saying, allow me a nosy. Then, you know, next second, they're bad mouthing you left and right. I don't care. But, you know, that's why we have this stigma that people that went to prison don't want to own it and they don't want to talk about it, you know, because there's that negative connotation with it. Well, look, if you're a felon, what drug? Can you go into the bank and get a banked to his job? Yeah.

I mean, really. That's why I think this whole thing is so cool that, like, because you have that whole world of influencers, right? That, like, the hot girls and the only fans, girls and people doing all this. And now you have this whole new realm of people that went to prison that could become influencers. And that just negates all that bad stigma.

It's really a sight to behold. It's a beautiful thing. I mean, see these people? I mean, what was it? that unique fellow. That guy has a podcast with a huge following, right? I mean, look at JD. You love JD.

I love JD. JD Delay, he loves you. Doesn't he have a million followers now? On TikTok, he's got a million, 500 on YouTube. Yeah, I mean, that guy, he's a good part of my life now. Yeah. He's a great guy. And he loves me, he loves you, and that, but those people, they have a lot of power.

He could get, he has more power. than certain, in the sense of reaching people, than certain politicians. I mean, if, I mean, the way you people, podcasts who could influence people, I mean, look, look at Rogan. Look how many people he has and how he influences people.

Yeah. I mean, the podcast is, media is very, very strong. But people never thought that the people that went to prison would have that influence to. And that's what's the exciting part. about it. That's probably scary too. It's probably scary for some people. Yeah, well, it's a new world because then you have like the politicians that are hesitant to get involved with

individuals like us about that. And that's going to start the change. Didn't some local politician blow you off? Yeah, I reached out to Johanna Hayes from Waterbury and I said, hey, I'd love to make my platform available to you, to use, you know? And they wrote me off said they wouldn't even take a meeting with me. That's going to bite her in the ass. Well, you know what? Another 500,000 people should be knocking at your door. No, but like, why write someone off like that just because I went to prison?

You know, I can't do good because I went to prison. There's a stigma attached that. You know, let's not be naive in. No matter how successful you are now, there's still a stigma. But we're going to change that. That's my goal. I hope so. We're going to be knocking down those doors.

and we're going to push this thing to the limits. I hope so. I'm proud of you. How does it feel to be episode 100? Can you believe I've done 100 episodes already? I said that to your mother. The other day, I said, I can't believe Ian has 100 interviews already. I said, that's unbelievable.

And I said, well, he said, only has 99 because I'm going to be 100. Now it's 100. Well, like, I've come so far as just, like, as an interviewer. I think that the appropriate thing to do is when I, get to be 100. We do another interview. So you ought to be out there. Well, hopefully we have you on before then. I got to wait 20 years to interview you again. Well, I just think so. You know, it would be, you know, oh, my dad did the 100th episode and now he's 100. Kind of cool. And now we're going to three episodes a week

and, you know, we're doing different things. And it's cool to have episodes like this where it's not necessarily about someone's story, but it's a big part of the show. It's a big part. It's meaningful to our listeners because they got a better insight of, like, like who I am. I love this. I mean, is this, sitting here and chatting with you

about this stuff is wonderful to me. I mean, I just absolutely love it. I couldn't imagine. I mean, I don't see you that much. We hang out a lot,

this is the longest I've sat. Talk to you up and back. I know. The holidays, we hung out all Christmas Day together. We watched the movies. We did. And you got Boone?

Yeah, I got Boone. Yeah. Boone is the benefit. Yeah, a lot of people that follow me on Facebook and Instagram know Boone, our dog. He's the best. Well, he lives with me now. We got to bring him on the show one day. I'm going to bring him here.

You guys can start hanging out. Hang out in the studio, you know, watch some TV or something. Yeah, I mean. You can hang out in here. I'll come here for the Super Bowl. That's here, play it out. Well, you know, the barbecue place is going to be closed that day. It's only takeout or advanced orders or something like that.

I don't like that place anyway. Okay. I'm sorry. So we got listener questions for you. I put up a post and people had questions for you as by dad. Can I take the fifth? No, you can't take the fifth. There's nothing that could incriminate you on this.

So our friend Stephen O'Connor, who was in the documentary, is my dear childhood friend. He wants to know whether or not you think life would have unfolded. the same way if me and him had never had met. No. I think it was meant to be. I think you would have gone in this path, whether you had Stephen or not. And Stephen wasn't your fault, kiddo.

You know, we do always say if we never foamed those cars that night, which is a big part of the story, then we wouldn't be here today having this conversation. That was a major error. on your part and his part. And you know, you guys, you have an important childhood friend. So you can't look back and say what it would be like.

Because who knows? If it wasn't Stephen, it would be some other shmiggy kid that you hooked up with because you were. That's who you were. You attracted people like Stephen. the misfits of the world? I don't call Stephen a misfit. Oh, it's a good thing. It's not a bad thing.

I thought I called Stephen an unusual kid, man. He was definitely unusual, especially when I had that new car and he wanted to take apart my video and what was that, the screen? The DVD player. Remember when cars used to, do they still make DVD players in cars?

I don't know. But he was trying to take it. And he said, don't you fucking touch that. because he had his screwdriver out and he was ready to take it up. Remember we used to play Xbox when we'd drive to Rochester? We'd hook the Xbox up to this little baby screen

and be in Skyler, my brother would be on split screen with that. Right. Well, that's made those trips survival for your mother and myself. If it wasn't that, it was cartoons we played in those things. People, that was another question.

People wanted to know how mom feels about this if she's still involved with us because they never, she doesn't come on the show. we don't really talk about her. They just want to know like a general sense of where mom is. She's very interested and she's very proud of you.

Mom doesn't, she watches an occasional podcast, but she's always busy. She has stuff that she's doing so she doesn't really have a chance like me who does nothing to watch podcasts. Yeah. I mean, but she's very interested and she's very proud of, the person you've become. We got our attention when Chevy came on.

Absolutely. And her family, because she would tell her family, oh, Ian started a podcast, this and that, everyone was kind of laughing. And then when she put in their family group checks, look who he just interviewed. Yeah, I think she also sent a picture of Sylvester Stallone and you. And I told her about the jackass guy, but I think she may have mentioned it to a family, but she said, who is that? Yeah, 2023, quite a year.

Sylvester Stallone, Chevy Chase, Brandon Novak, Mike Tyson. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mike Tyson, man, he sent me a box of edibles the other day. Really good. Those gummies, the Tyson bites. Yeah, they were all different colors, the containers. Were they all different?

All different. There's three flavors. All different purposes or just... No, there are three different flavors. They're to mellow you out. Yeah, they help sleep at night. I haven't tried them yet because I've been sick this week. I didn't want to mix it with the NyQuil.

Yeah. get all loopy, but... I totally understand. I mean, with all the medication I take, I can't take any of those things. So you don't want to get high? Not a question of wanting to get high. It's just that, how they operate with some of my medication. Gotcha.

People want to know about the parties from back in the day at our house parties. What do you think of them? The house parties I used to throw those wild two... Some people and I talk about that. they don't believe there was actually three or 400 people at the house. You want to back me up on this one? I never did a count, but I knew there were more than 26 that were on a guest list. You would hand me a guest list and there would be 26 and you'd say maybe 30.

Okay. After there were 200, I knew you were a liar. No. They were great parties. There were big parties and they were, you're, Your mother was very stressed out about it because I was in the event business. I wasn't that stressed out about it. But I was more concerned about kids drinking.

And I did my best to supervise that. I mean, I'm sure you guys got over on me many times. But whenever I saw it, I made sure I confiscated it. But you did have $2.250 coming. I mean, the police periodically showed up. by the neighbors calling them, you know, Bix having a party. So the police would show up and ask me, and they would ask me if I had a problem.

I said, I didn't have a problem. Only one time I said there were some people, I don't know who they are. They weren't invited, so they left. But otherwise, except for the amount of people, it was pretty sedate. You got to tell the story about the weed incident. that's literally iconic.

All right. Well, that gives insight into me now. Okay. I was walking the property as I normally do. And in the far corner of our property, there were these three or four kids getting high. And they started to put it away.

And I said, listen, if you're going to smoke, make sure it's good because you're smoking some real shit. So don't smoke down. on my property. And that's basically all it was. It smelled bad. It wasn't that great.

And I knew from past history. You're an OG, Pops. Well, I like my marijuana. You know, one day we have to have you on the show to talk about some of your crazy experiences. No, we don't. There's no statute of limitations, Pops. No, we don't. I mean, they're all expired.

We've got to get you telling some crazy stories. No, we don't. Because I get it from somewhere, you know. So what do you think about the concept of paying for protection in prison? And did you realize that by you sending me money, you were essentially helping me to navigate the prison system? I think it was a necessary evil. There was nothing else I could do to keep you safe.

And if it only meant money, that's what I was going to do. We were lucky that I was able to give you money. The fact that you need to buy protection in prison is crazy. You're there. At least they should give you a safe environment. But it's not. And, you know, I knew it was for protection, and I did my best. And that's what it was.

Every time you called me, I knew you had a damn good reason why you needed the money. You know, and I, did I, I don't. When you first went into the shoe at Fort Dix, I don't know if I told you this story. What about the guy call you tried to extort for buddy? Guy called me via Facebook. And he said, you know, Ian's in the shoe and da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And, you know, when he gets out, he may not be safe. and, you know, we could help him out with that, you know.

And I said to him, I said, you know, you're on Facebook. I said, how stupid are you? I said, I'm not going to give you any money. I said, you're lucky if I don't fucking report you. And then he hung up. And then a little while later, some other stupid idiot did the same thing. I said the same thing. I mean, the fact that they would get on Facebook

and try to extort money from me, I mean, that was, at course, they had no other way to contacted me, contacting me, so that's what they did, but it was stupid. But, yeah, I think it's disgusting that you have to have protection in prison. Did you think it was like in the movies? Is that what you were comparing it to?

Because you've watched, like, a lot of prison shows and movies? I had no idea what it was like. I just imagined it was terrible. And I imagined that my, young kid was going to be in trouble at some point in time. I had no idea that they thought you were a sex offender when you walked in. Who knew? You were like my kid.

You were not a sex offender, you know? Because that was never really in the TV shows. There was no talk of chomos or this and that. No, but that was a whole new world. I didn't even, I didn't know about your experience as a sex offender until like two years after you came out. and you start to talk about it. Well, you know who ruined it for everyone, Jared Fogel? He gave all the guys with the glasses a bad name, the young-looking guys.

Yeah. Well, all I know is that, you know, I did what I did to keep you safe. And do I think it's a disgrace? Yeah, I think it's a disgrace. Someone on the topic of paying for protection, I got a funny question for you. At what point did you realize Ian was either giving the cheeks or paying for protection? action. Giving the cheeks.

I was always worried that Ian was falsely giving the cheeks. But I knew that it cost me 100 a week to prevent him from turning over his cheeks, I was going to fork over 100 a week, whatever it cost. Oh, man, that was a great reply from you, Pops. See, most parents wouldn't have been able to take that one seriously. I mean, there is that connotation about giving the cheeks and dropping the soap, but you've heard that before. I've heard dropping the soap, but giving the cheeks? Great.

That's now emblazoned on my brain. Someone asked, what future did you imagine for me when I was born? When you were born? Yeah, in general. Did you have a future plan for me that you imagined? Yeah, I thought that, I hoped. that you would, maybe it's every parent's hope, that you would do better in life than I was doing.

And that's what my future. I looked at your future as just doing better. Not any particular path. I mean, I thought you would go to college possibly, but I wasn't so, I didn't think, I mean, I didn't go to college for what I do. I mean, I went to college from my previous, life, but not my present life.

And to put it out there for people, you were a teacher and a public school administrator and stuff, which I find interesting that because you condone me not going to college. Well, I think I condoned you not going to college because of what you wanted to do, and I didn't think college would teach you anything in your career, that you were better to go out and be an apprentice or just going for it. I mean, when I went to, I graduated from college with a liberal arts degree. If I, with that degree, I had to go to graduate school or something. So I wound up going to teach in New York City school system.

Even after I got my master's in education, that didn't teach me anything about teaching. There wasn't one thing that I learned in college that was useful. in teaching. And that's the truth. I mean, you can go to a, go be an apprentice and watch a couple of teachers.

And if you have a flair for teaching, you'll be a good teacher. I mean, we were talking about before we started this, that my brother is going to school for what physical therapy or something like that. And they're,

he's taking calculus. Yeah, he's struggling with calculus? Who uses calculus this day, unless you're an engineer? I mean, not, one of those math classes I've used in real life. It's called AI and a calculator. If you ever even

need that, you plug it in on the internet. I wonder if that stuff will ever get outdated. I don't think so. You think they'll always be teaching algebra and calculus? I think what it does, it stimulates your mind to think critically. You know, I think that I never thought I was going to use

fractions when I was learning fractions in high school, but I use fractions every day. and I use those things, but I didn't need to learn algebra. Yeah, maybe fractions for like baking or, but yeah, algebra and the slope and the Y and this. No, I never use that in real life. I mean, if you're going to be, if your goal is to be an engineer or sometimes scientific field or an architect, you need those things. Yeah.

For most people, they don't need those things. I mean, does a doctor need calculus? I mean, really. Now, out of all the episodes you've seen, right, you've watched every single one of them. Maybe you're behind on a couple. But if you were to go down a life of crime, which crime would you pick at all the episodes we've seen or you've seen? I thought the smartest guy was this guy unique. He has a great outlook on life unique.

That's a thing with him. Yeah, I thought he was the smartest guy. He said, you know, he's a guy. There's street rules, and you've got to follow those street rules wherever you are. And then there's other rules. In prison, there were different rules. It's a very interesting guy. He gets a bigger picture.

Yeah, and that was it. I think that's certainly one person that I thought. What do you think was your favorite episode? There were so many good episodes. I certainly like the, I can't remember, the one's the comedian. The one's the comedian guy who became, he was a drug dealer out. Oh, Johnny Mitchell. Yeah, I like Johnny.

Do you watch his podcast? No, I don't. He has a podcast. No, but I like Johnny Mitchell. I thought that episode, I really liked. Yeah. He's been on the show twice now, and I do his clips for him, too. But that was a great episode.

I enjoyed that. Those kinds of stories, I enjoyed. The Rikers Island Prison Guard one was crazy, too. That was crazy. It's always funny when an episode comes out. I'll call you the next day to call you about whatever. And you're like, hey, that episode last night was good, man. That guy was crazy.

Did he really do that? I mean, and the other one who was the, who recently, I can't remember. I don't remember people's names. Forgive me. But he's the one that you were talking about how was it like to stab somebody? And did they use a knife or did they die? Oh, the shot collar, the white guy when we were in the hotel in Arkansas. It wasn't on the podcast set, right?

No, it was on the podcast, this last one. It was the one I just, you know, I keep jumping around and see different ones. But there was one that was really interesting. I think he had reddish hair. They were all very, very good. They were all having a good takeaway from all of them. And, of course, I like JD. Come on, JD, it's my buddy.

I do it that episode shirtless with him that first time. It's over half a million views. on almost a two-hour episode. I mean, if you want to look back and reminisce, I had so much fun doing commissary cook-off. People are asking for it back. It was a lot, you know? It was a lot of work to put it together.

But it was... Those videos are you? I have them. I made them all private on YouTube because it doesn't, like, that's not the direction I'm going in, but I'm going to have those forever and see your energy of the commissary cook-off

and just how much fun in the picture. That was all of the first six months of last year. That's what we were doing. They were. I mean, people ask me, you know, you're going to do a cooking show. And I say, no, I don't. I said, pops, come on. We're driving a Hyde Park.

You'd be in the car ride and have the shenanigans. And you'd start cooking the prison food. It was fun. It's hard to do continuously because you need different spins and different people. And it's about the personality. Like, you have a personality, JD has a personality. It was good. But, you know, quite frankly, I was cheated in a lot of those episodes.

You cheated? No, you guys cheated me. How did we cheat you? You won a couple. Yeah, but you won when you tasted it and said, well, you didn't put it on a chip. It would have been better. You would have won. I made the greatest fish cake out of that crap.

Out of the mackerel. The mackerel, and it was a tuna that I mixed together and made a good fish take. If you're in prison, what do you think your hustle would be? And what do you think your favorite, like, commissary item would be? Because I like fish. I'd probably use mackerel and tuna if you had it and figure out how to do something really good with that. I think I would have been selling fish cakes. You know what's really good?

You take mackerel, a tuna, some mayo, and then saltine crackers, solid pepper. It's a great dip. Well, I would take those saltine crackers and break them up with the mayo and some kind of spice and make them into fish cakes. Remember you hated on the mackerel and then I gave it to you on pizza and you actually thought it was pretty good and I brought it over to my friend's house for nachos. Was it pizza or those nachos? Yeah, you had out of nachos, but I've also put on pizza and it's, it tastes good when it's

heated up and isn't that? It's good. As a fish, I don't particularly like mackerel. What's a cheap fish? These were good. You know, somebody, I was, you know, my friend Bob, you You know? Yeah.

We went for sushi the other night, and he ordered this very elaborate-looking mackerel dish. It was fried, and it was done in an Asian-inspired design, slices of raw macro and fried mackerel. It was surprisingly delicious, and I don't like mackerel, but it was really good. But I do. I missed, on certain levels, I missed the commissary cookoff. That was fun. It was a fun diversion. We could do one occasionally for fun.

We should do it in our house. We remember we cooked nachos that first day? I made a little reel before the commissary cookoff. I just made it as a TikTok and your facial expressions. You're like, what the fuck is this? Well, we should certainly do. I would do another one in our house. You know, because it was fun.

Next time JD comes to town, we've got to have him over for dinner. Yeah, we should. I want to hear his comments. We can have a cooking competition. I can have to help me cook, and we can do that. What's one guest do you want to see me have on the show this year? What would be like your dream guest for me to interview? The guy who played Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr.? Yeah. You want to hear about his? I want to hear about his struggles and his turnaround. You know who else would be good on that note? The guy that was Tim Allen, similar stories. Tim Allen went to prison for cocaine. Well, I really want to have.

hear that guy and who else would I want to hear because I think his story has to be amazing. Have you heard about the Gypsy, did you watch the Gypsy Rose documentary because everyone's been asking for her too? No, I'll watch that. You haven't seen Gypsy Rose is the one that she killed her mother. I didn't see that one yet. Where the mom was doing, the mom said that she was, the mom was pretending that she was sick, the daughter was sick, Munchauser's disease.

Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, and she just got out of prison. It's a whole big thing. Now, everyone's kind of starting to turn against her. But she has millions of followers that kind of blew up overnight. But she would be a great one. Anyone listening, guys, make sure you comment and tag Gypsy Rose to tell her to come on the show. That would be a great one, for sure.

You know what people are saying, too, is that, like, our show gives people a chance to share their side of the story. Like, when a guest sits down, it's not me but barting them. with my opinion of how I feel about them. It's just a safe space for them to share. Yeah, it's, you're interviewing me, but I feel really comfortable. Well, you're my dad. We're just bullshit in. We're just bullshit in.

You know what I mean? It's just the fact that we're just sitting here chatting, but that's how your podcast is. Yeah. The person who's sitting in this chair is looking at you and just chatting you, telling you this story in an animated way because they're excited to be here. Normally, I don't even get to talk this much. It's all about the guest. And our listeners get mad when I start talking because they want to hear the guest.

And that's the biggest thing I've learned about podcasting, let the guest speak. But in a setting like this, this is fun. Sit down bullshit for a little bit, you know? This is different. Time flies too because then I'm not like kind of sometimes I'll get a little tired. And it's nothing against a guest. It's just like when you're listening and not being able to talk, you know. Yeah.

But, you know, your technique is, I don't want to blow smoke up. But your technique is very good. Is there anything left unsaid that you want to say about the entire situation or about, you know, what's comfortable or anything you just want to say in general? I think I'm excited to see your growth. I'm excited to see where it goes from here because I think this is the infancy stage of who you are. The rebirth of Ian Bick.

And I had nothing to do with this one. What do you mean nothing to do with? You got everything to do with it, Pops? This one, I'm more of an observer. Well, I'm not calling you saying we owe creditors and need to come down here and I'll pay someone off. I'm poor because of that. And you're still alive.

Oh, Pops. Well, Dad, thank you for coming on the show today. I couldn't picture any other episode 100 other than with you, you know? It had to be you. This was very enjoyable. I appreciate it. Any chance I get to sit for 45 minutes and chat with my son and laugh and reminisce about the crap that went on in our lives.

It's a beautiful thing. I'm glad. Well, Pops, have a safe trip back to five minutes down the road. I know. I have to go shopping. Oh, you go shopping? Yeah. Okay.

Thanks, Bob. After the show, I'm going to the liquor store. Oh, okay. Have fun.