The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - 361: Greg Warren - I Made it Further than Shane Gillis at West Point

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

SPONSORS:Aura Frames-Visit https://www.AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura's Carver Mat frame using promo code HONEYDEWBooking.com-Head over to Booking.com and start your listing today. Get Seen. Get Booked on Booking.com.Mood-Get 20% off your first order at https://www.Mood.com with promo code HONEYDEWMy HoneyDew this week is comedian Greg Warren! Check out his latest special The Champ, produced by Nate Bargatze and streaming on Nateland’s YouTube channel! Greg joins me to Highlight the Lowlights of his time wrestling! From high school state championships where his father coached him, to a year at West Point, and eventually ending up at the University of Missouri where he would earn an All American title. Greg opens up about some of the darker side effects that wrestling has left him with, like an unhealthy relationship with food and eventually what would be diagnosed as scrupulosity OCD. Plus Ryan shares his own stories of getting to practice in school under legendary sports brothers Solomon and Nate Carr.Check out my new standup special “Live and Alive” streaming on my YouTube now! https://youtu.be/PMGWVyM2NJo?si=SrhXjgzR1pe6CyYESUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https://youtube.com/@rsicklerSUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON - The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! Get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month!AND we just added a second tier. For a total of $8/month, you get everything from the first tier, PLUS The Wayback a day early, ad-free AND censor free AND extra bonus content you won't see anywhere else!http://patreon.com/RyanSicklerWhat’s your story?? Submit at [e-mail] Your HoneyDew Gear Today!https://shop.ryansickler.com/Ringtones Are Available Now!https://www.apple.com/itunes/http://ryansickler.com/https://thehoneydewpodcast.com/SUBSCRIBE TO THE CRABFEAST PODCASThttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187

What's up, guys? I just want to say thank you very much for all the support on the special. Please, if you haven't watched it, go watch it. Like it, comment, all that good stuff. Live and alive, streaming now on my YouTube. What's up, guys? The holidays are coming and I'm going to be straight up with you. I'm just trying to get rid of the merch I have. We got quite a bit of merch left, and I just want to get rid of it. And I want to get rid of it for you guys. All right. So here's what we got going on. There is a huge talk about fire sale. y'all huge fire sale in the merch store on my website at ryan sickler.com we've got $10 t's and hats $20

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Welcome back to the honeydew, y'all. We're over here doing it in the Nightpans Studios. I am Ryan Sickler, Ryan Sickler.com, and Ryan Sickler on all your social media. And I'm going to start this episode like I start them all. Thank you for watching this show. Thank you for supporting anything I do. If you're already this far in, drop a comment,

help out the algorithm. them you know how it all works all right um look man uh we're just going to get into it you know what we do here we highlight the low lights and i always say these are the stories behind the storytellers and i'm very excited to have this guest with us here today first time on the honeydew ladies and gentlemen gregg warren welcome to the honeydew greg warren thanks ryan it's good to be here thank you for being here um we've been having great chats before we started here and i can't wait to get into it but before we do please promote everything and anything you would like Okay, thanks, man.

Well, I got a new special out. It's called The Champ. And it's on YouTube. It's on Nate Bargettsey's YouTube channel, Nate Land. And it dropped a few weeks ago. And that's what I'm most excited about. All right. Where can they find you on social media and all that stuff?

It's a Greg Warren Comedy.com as my website. And I think that has all the links on there. But yeah, pretty excited about the special. Good for you, dude. Thanks, man. Let's get into it because I'm excited to hear your story. So where are you from originally? St. Louis.

All right. From St. Louis. And family of what? How many brothers, sisters? Two brothers. Yeah, no sisters. Are your parents together? My mom passed away nine years ago.

She did. Yeah. And my brother, my brother, Devin, actually, I didn't mention it, is 18 years younger than me. So. Same parents? Same parents. Same mom and dad. Are you the middle child?

I'm the oldest. 18 years younger? Was it an accident or were they really like, let's have another. No, I don't think it was, you know, intended. I was at some summer. You're out of high school. I was, it was in between junior and senior year high school. And my dad, I was doing something like, I think it was boys state.

Do you mind what that? It was like student government thing or whatever that you, but I did that and I was called my dad from there and he was, we need to talk about something. I was like, oh, man, my grades must have come because it was early. I was like, my grades can't. Yeah, it's like this is what I knew we were going to have this discussion. He goes, your mother's pregnant. And I was like, what?

And took me a while to process. Yeah. So, yeah. And how old's the middle brother? He's four years younger than me. So 14 year gap between him, too. That's massive. Yeah, it's pretty big.

Are you guys all close? Yeah, man. Yeah, we are. You know, and it's kind of fun now because like my little brother has kids and my nephews and their little kids. So it's like, I never get a kid. He did it young? Well, he's, yeah, yeah, I'm 56, almost 57. So, yeah. So growing up, what's it like for you? You're in a, your parents are married and together growing up though? Yeah, man. I had a pretty ideal childhood, I guess. I mean, everybody's got stuff. But, uh, yeah, I, um, my dad was, uh, was a high school wrestling coach.

He was my coach. Oh, is that right? Yeah. I was going to ask you how you got into it. So was he, his high school wrestling coach. Was he a prominent wrestler in his day as well? I think he was decent, you know, but nothing. He was a pretty good football player. I think he played in the Air Force. Oh, shit. And he was a good high school wrestler,

but nothing like crazy. He was, he was one of those good athlete dudes that could kind of be good at a lot of stuff. Yeah, I think he wrestled in Long Island. He grew up in Long Island. He was telling me, like, you know, when I was, you know, we talked about who's a state champ and all that stuff, he was like, we never even got to the state.

It was a big deal if he just got a high island. of Long Island, which makes sense because it's so big. And, you know, so he's your high school coach? Is that when you start wrestling in high school? No, I started five years old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he put you in it and you love it. Yeah.

Are all your brothers wrestlers? They all did wrestle one time. You know, those guys were primarily soccer players, though. I mean, they played in college. You did too? Yeah, it was all juco and community college, bro. Canfield community college, all jukego. Is it in Maryland?

Yeah. Yeah. Right next to the community college I went to is right next to. You probably heard of UMBC. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's right next door.

Yeah, yeah. It's like their shed. They had a run in the tournament a few years ago. Yeah, they took out like a top team in the first round, had a bit of a run. Yeah. So many, it wasn't me. Somebody called them United Missouri Bank or something like that. It wasn't me.

Not my joke. But yeah, they managed. So when I was in high school, there was. a junior college called Merrimack Junior College and was right next to where I live. It was probably a mile and a half or whatever and they had a wrestling team and I would go up there that's kind of how I got good, you know.

Just letting the older more experienced guys beat the shit out of you. I would go up there and work out with those guys every day. At what age are you doing this? Through high school, throughout high school. So five, is your dad coaching you then or is he just putting in like the pee-wee stuff? He started the Little League team that I was part of

and then I was around his teams, you know, just And I don't remember a lot of it But that was pretty good, pretty quick Because he was a good coach Yeah And so are you I didn't do it until high school

So now you got me one or two Are you cutting weight and stuff In an early age? No No Not Like how do they protect the kids That are 5, 6, 7

Are there weight classes there? I think there's weight classes I mean the biggest protection Is you have good parents You know And my dad was He was a good good parent and a good coach.

He didn't really even let me cut weight in high school that much. I think I tried that once. Yeah, I didn't cut a lot. I mean, you're a little here and there, but when I got to college, it was insane. We were getting so,

you know, we were using the sauna suits and kids would tape up trash bags. And we had this guy rest as I think he passed away. His name was Bob Hennerd, man. Shout out to Mr. Hennard. This dude was our athletic director,

but he was an older guy. And he was one of these, you know, when he walked, he'd have this kind of energy. He was bubbly and whatever. He was not a fool at all, but he knew how to turn a blind eye. And he would come in and there would have been a mandate that no sauna suits or trash bags

were allowed to be used anymore, all this shit. He comes in, just, you know, 20 of us are wrestling. He's like, okay, guys. You couldn't even hear them. It's just all trash bags, rustling. I'm like, God. And we're running into sauna suits. We would put a, we had a wool overcoat.

Yeah. from World War II that we would pass around and put on and we go outside and jog to try to drop two pounds real quick. Yeah, yeah. You know, just so I know we put our bodies through hell there. It's smart that your dad said, I feel like it probably stunts a lot of kids growth. Like, it fucked you up. But you say college was. Once I got to college, it was, it was, because it was still you could do anything.

All right. So let me dial back for one second. Are you a state champ? Like, do you? A couple times. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. What, uh, all Missouri? Like, what weight class? Uh, I think I wanted at 138 and 145 my senior year. You did? Yeah. What's that like?

It was good, man. It was a bad ass. It was, yeah, man. It was one of the coolest times ever because high school is pretty fun. And college was more rewarding, I think, at the end. Was your high school? Were they really into wrestling? No.

They weren't. And it bumps me out because I could have been like the really, really cool kid at a different high school. But I was just, I mean, I had a great experience. Well, we, if you were a state champ in our school, it was a, a big picture on the wall with your pose and your record and all this. But our one, I don't know who started it, but one of our coaches was like, enough of this. No kids come out to watch this or anything. So, you know, Vision Quest was big.

Yeah. So this coach. Change my life. He told, we'll talk about it. He told whoever, I guess Mr. Henner, the athletic director. So when we wrestled, they would cut all the lights off. Yeah. Hulled in pitch black.

We had a bell. Someone had made like a little bell light. they would drop it down low over the mat and you would just wrestle into pitch black in this fucking spotlight let me tell you something that gym filled up oh man filled up that's so i and we weren't even a big wrestling school we were known you know what we're known for the band yeah our band would play like they would win states and they would always get on the awards like we're like we just won yesterday man i pin this kid in six seconds i don't get something clarinette's getting fucking love right I play clarinet too.

I did. I know. We read, bro. You're a fan of the licorice stick. I know, right. Yeah, yeah. Are you good at it?

Can you still play? I can play a little. I don't play much. I picked it up. I was, you know, I was thinking, yeah,

I was good. And then I kind of gave it up. Yeah. I think I was one of those guys like, you know those guys like in the movies where it's like the football player kid that's like a natural athlete, but puts nothing into it.

Yeah. I was that. Jacks, not that he didn't put anything into it. Yeah, more like the guy that always shows, like the guy is God gifted but doesn't work hard and doesn't do what he's supposed to. Kick and do a flip and shit. I was that with the clarinet. You just took to it?

It's like, boo. What was like the most advanced song you could play and stuff? Man. Like, could you rip through a boob. Yeah, I could do, you know, Rhapsie and Blue with, uh, do da da da da da da da da da da. Yeah, you can do that. On the way up, you bend, you bend,

your breath. And I could still do it, man. You can't? Yeah, yeah. You soaking those reeds and shit? Yeah, man. It sounds like I'm bragging and I am a little bit. Good.

Listen, I can promise you this right now, bro. Nobody's ever sat in that seat. In all the years I've done this and said, I can fucking crush the clarinet. Well, Ryan, this is because there's not a lot of guys they can't, you know? Like, I mean, uh... As soon as class was over, I'm done with this. I did clarinet trumpet. it and I wanted to do drums, but my parents were like, you're not fucking doing drums.

We're not buying a drum set. But I still want to do it. I still have nervous energy. I want to learn how to put it into a rhythm. I was thinking about this. Nobody seemed like in band practice, like in band class, those guys always were having the time in their life because, like, they were in the, the drummers were always, like, way in the back and they were always like, it was always guys.

And they were always, like, screwing around, you know, like, always having the, and I was like, right up front next to the band. director and those guys it seemed like they were always having fun you're such a juxtaposition at our school because it was the jocks and it didn't matter what sport yeah the jocks the male too versus the band nerds and the theater nerds but you're the fucking state godband you're not just a wrestler you're the wrestler and you're playing clarinet bro yeah nobody's fucking with your ass um yeah i don't know i mean i got made fun of but but yeah uh probably from a distance Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I don't think I knew the, you know, the, I don't think I realized that you could fight as a wrestler, you know, in college I did.

But, yeah. So you win state champ twice in high school. Yeah. And then are you scholarship, are you recruited? Did you get to choose where you wanted to do? So where were your choices? What options did you have pretty much? Missouri, like some of the different schools in Missouri, I think, Southern Illinois at Edwardsville.

I got a lot of letters from like those, like small private D2, D3 type schools where, you know, it's like, oh, really good academically and I didn't really. But then I got recruited to go to West Point, the United States, and I wound up going there. And I did. Yeah, I went there for a year and I quit, Ryan. I, yeah. Shane Gillis did too, bro. Yeah.

Now listen, man, I made it a lot farther than Shane did. I went a full year. I think he went for like a month or something. I don't know. He wasn't long. I don't know. I met him briefly went to him. But I really want to meet him because I'd love to talk to him on some of that stuff. And yeah, I went the full year.

And you're wrestling the whole time? I was hurt for a couple months of it. But yeah, I was on the wrestling team. And I remember like we made it through all the stuff. Like we made it through the hazing. Like, it's over. And I was like, okay, I'm done with, you know. know, I'm done.

I don't have to do it. And we went to this meeting and we were about to go on leave for, you know, like a month, which is amazing because your life is regulated. So I was looking at me, and we went to this meeting to talk about what we were going to do when we came back to summer. I think we were going to like drive tanks and all that stuff. And we all go to this meeting and they were like, when you get back to your barracks, we're going to have an inspection and equipment inspection.

And I remember thinking, I don't have any of that equipment. I lost it. And they're going to, this yelling thing is not going to be over. They're going to yell at me about that. Where did you lose it? I don't know. You lost a gun? I didn't lose a gun.

I did lose the firing pin, though, one time. That was the worst, one of the worst experiences. Like, what are they just in your face screaming at you? You break down the weapon. You have to take part of the weapon and put it back together. What is the weapon? What are they giving you? M16.

Okay, and M16. So you break it down and put it back together in the field. And I lost the firing pin. It was like gone. And they're like screaming at me. Like, Warren, find the fire in the fire. But I could also tell they're screaming at me. because these were upperclassmen

and it wasn't like funny fraternity like you saw them as like I'm terrified of this person even though it's senior in college you know but they're screaming at you but I could also spot like the fear in his eye because he knew if they didn't if I lost that he's gonna he's his it's coming down

on him right so they are screaming at me and I like I cannot find it and it's like in the grass and we're all like look around in some miracle after like 10 minutes of them like being like you are what I I saw the firing pin and I got it. And he was like, good job, Mr. Warren.

Good job. And I remember this guy, cadet Costigan. He was like, not a good job, Warren. You're an idiot for losing it in the first place, you moron. He's good job because he knows his answer. He was horrified. He was terrified. Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, I remember screwing that up bad. So they come to check your equipment and you don't have it? What are you missing? I just was on the way back, marching back, when we had the meeting. I decided I'm quitting. Is that AWOL? No, I didn't leave. Okay.

So I go to like the guy and I'm like, hey, I'm quitting. And then I have to explain to 10 more people than I'm quit. Because it's like, okay, okay. And they want to keep telling you, you got to stay. Yeah, and then I got to like the top guy. I was like, I'm going to quit. And I felt like, you know, I was a kid. I felt like I was letting down my country and all this.

But I also was like, I don't want to do this anymore, you know. Because I was pretty straight arrow kid in high school. I wanted to party and stuff too. Like, you know. But are you, so did you get to wrestle at all in college? Yeah. At West Point, I did. You did.

I was not, I think it was a red shirt year. Yeah. So then do you still have your seniority? Like you still have a true freshman when you go. I still have four years eligibility. And where you go after West Point? Missouri. And I was, man, I was literally thinking about doing comedy.

I didn't know what it was at that point. But I was like so dis. And then I got home in the. Missouri coach showed up to my house like two days later. And I was like, all right, I'm going to go to Missouri and wrestle. And what weight class do you wrestle in Missouri? 150 and then my senior year I bumped up to 158. And how'd you do?

I was good. My senior year, I made All-American. My senior year I got seventh in the country. Damn, the top eight get All-American. Fuck, yeah. Yeah. But you were telling me earlier, it was crazy. Like the junior year, I was at the NASDA,

And I lost. This is small world shit, right? This is crazy. Yeah, I lost in the blood round. It's what they call it. It's like if you win, you're an All-American. If you lose, you go home. And it was at the University of Maryland in College Park.

And I was there. And you were there. That's insane, man. We're talking before. And I say, you know, I remember it was like, it was it 1990? It was 1990. Yeah. 1990.

I'm a junior. Might have been senior. March of 1990. Well, March 8th is my birthday. So I'm a junior in high school and the wrestling coach is like, hey, you guys want to skip school today. I got a couple of tickets down to the University of Maryland to watch. Cole Fieldhouse is where it was. Coal Fieldhouse.

To watch the nationals wrestling. We're like, fuck yeah. So my buddy of mine on the team, we drive down ourselves. And, you know, we go watch. And I probably saw you wrestle. We were there all day. Well, it was during school because I was out by Friday night. Friday night I was out.

So I was wrestling Friday during the day. It's crazy. That's crazy. You were like, I think I was wrestling in that tour. I'm like, it would have been night, yeah? Yeah, yeah. And you lost in that one right there or you would have been All-American back-to-back years? Yeah, if I would have lost that match that night, Friday night, I lost.

Yeah. T. Don Fleshman, he's from New Mexico. And then I want to get into the food and cutting weight because I don't miss you say it was crazy there. Yeah. Yeah. But so I wrestled in high school and I was mentioning to you, we were very lucky because Maryland's this really interesting part of the country where you're close to D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Jersey's close, Virgin, you know, it's right here. Yeah, yeah. And we had the Carr brothers.

We first had Solomon Carr. And you were like, yeah, I know the fuck you is, which just blows me away. This is insane that these guys were people you worked out with. Yeah. So Solomon was a I think I can't remember where he came from originally But Eerie PA it was Pennsylvania. It's right Eerie P.A so he comes down to Maryland and he's he I didn't tell you this out there So he's working as a gosh like a counselor for trouble kids. Yeah, you know, but so one night, you know, we don't have parents and stuff. So he's like I'm going to take you guys home. I'm like great. It's me and my brother and another kid that live on the same street. we all wrestle.

And he's taking us home. We're trying to get the fuck out of the van. We're like, Solomon, we can't get out. He's like, yeah, man, bad kids can't get out. Hold on. He had to get out and let us out.

We were like, this is your work fan? He's like, yeah, it's the work man. Bad kids couldn't get out at all. We're like, there's no, man. Oh, wow.

He's driving wild kids. Yeah, man. Not just, he's driving wild kids that can't let themselves out. He's got to get out. You said trouble. You meant, yeah. I was thinking like,

oh, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. They'll beat someone like that, you know, those kind of kids. So he's the guy to do it. You ain't fucking with him. So we talked about it. Like this dude's body, he's like a sumo wrestler. His ass was like from his middle of his hamstrings to the middle of his back, all like this muscle mass.

And his legs, it was, he was deformed. And like his, he was, was it knock knee then? Yeah. Where your knees go in. But his feet would stay flat. on the fucking ground. And he was like, it's, you couldn't move them. We'd all try to get up and take a single leg, a double.

He'd work out. He'd work out. So he was so good and so well known. Yeah. Obviously, if you even know what you're doing, that right away, he got a head coaching job at our rival high school, Westminster High where this kid I'm going to tell you about Mike Jones would wrestle. But he was like, I'm going to do you a solid, not just abandon you.

My brother, Nate Carr, who was wrestling at WVU. And this, Solomon's an Olympian. I think it was Solomon at wrestling. And there's another brother, too, that. Joe Carr was an Olympian. Joe Carr was an Olympian in high school. It might have been, he came for like a day or something. Nate was an Olympic gold medalist.

That's right. Nate was the gold medalist. That's right. Yeah. So Nate Carr comes in and I'll never forget. He's a kid still. He's in his 20s. And he's walking around.

He's got his jock strap on. He's got his pants down his asses out. He says, all right, guys, let's go. We're like, what the fuck. We loved him. He was so fun and funny. He was great guy, man. great. And he was not built like his brother all. He was like, you know, built.

This motherfucker's a rock. Explosive, man. So, never seen anybody faster. Yeah. He taught us so much. So now he's our assistant coach. You guys. And we're going and wrestling against his brother's team. So he's like, you better fuck those guys up. But they had this dude named Mike Jones. I've told this story before. This guy was so good that he would whisper what he was going to do to you before he'd do it. So, So there's times where guys like, he said headlock, man. No way, man. And he would go, headlock. And then boom hit you.

But it made you stutter enough because he knew you. You're listening. Really? He would go, cradle. Boom, hit you with a cradle, whispered in your ear and every dude. And it would come off like whispering that shit. No way, man. He was so good.

That's insane. But yeah, the Carr brothers were my coaches, which is, it's nice to hear from a fucking state wrestler and college athlete how great they were. I got to meet me. Like how lucky we really were too. Nate's one of the greatest wrestlers in American history. That's crazy. Yeah, Nate was, I think he's, my coach in college, um, uh, used to wrestle with Nate.

So like, uh, it was the big eight conference back then. And, uh, this guy Kenny Monday, uh, who was in, who was an Olympic gold medalist. And Nate and my coach were in the same weight class. Oh, is that right? Yeah, yeah. And I think Nate beat Kenny. in college, I think. But yeah, Nate and Kenny both went on to be Olympic old medalist.

Yeah, that's great. I mean, I've met him a couple times. I mean, he's awesome. And his son is a really good restaurant. It's just interesting to have, you know, when you're a high school athlete, because I played every damn sport, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, wrestling, soccer, you're always seeing new coaches come in and out. So you're like, who's this fucking guy?

Yeah. And then when you finally get one. So now we're realizing, I was telling you out there, too, like now we're realizing who Nate is. And we're like, coach, shut the fuck up. Nate's talking. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The coach was like, hey, man, I'm the coach. Well, your coach is bringing in Nate Carp. My dad, but he had this thing. My dad was like, anybody, he would just bring these guys in all the time because he was like, ah, that guy says he wrestled. Right. Get different perspective, you know. And sometimes it would be like a, you know, a guy that wrestle in college.

And sometimes he's like, dad, that's the janitor. And he's like, he doesn't know anything. Like, he doesn't always talking about dad. And we had to act like he's an expert and be like, yeah, yeah. He's like, oh, coach, we're calling him coach now. He just came over from a gas station. Like this guy, he has no clue what he's talking about it, you know? So tell me about the, it's got to be insane with the weight cutting and stuff in college, huh?

Yeah, it was stupid. I mean, because I think you came on right after. So when we were there, there were no rules. You could sauna suits. So we would, you know, if you're. If you're wrestling 150, you know, I was probably walking around around 165 or 160. And, you know, so you would start starting about 24 hours before you would dehydrate. And you just, you basically, we'd seal off the, the shot, we'd turn all the showers on.

We put a couple of bikes in there. We put plastics on and we'd seal off the showers with like a tarp. Oh shit, you know, like riding bike in that steam? Yeah. And we would put on Scorpions Live. And my friend Chip Bonner had it like choreographed to... You guys are doing spin class? Yeah, basically...

You're really spin class, man. This is amazing right now. I can't believe... I'm a professional comedian. That was my life and I never thought that that was the first spin class and it was. Nobody was doing that. You're exactly right. You're right.

It was spin class. So we go in there and we had it like We had it like You'd go through like The first two songs Then you could go out and you could rest And then you had to come in for a song You're like a hurricane zone

Yeah yeah yeah yeah And then So we and then by the time you got through the album Like you could you could drop I don't know seven or eight Is that right? Yeah and then How long was the album?

Hour hour-ish And so you're just pedaling and taking your breaks Yeah take breaks And you're dropping seven or eight pounds just there. But you would get to where, I remember you would get to where like, I think at the big eight tournament was the worst I ever cut Wade and that was my junior year. And like, when you say worst, is it the most or was it the worst time you had doing it? The worst time I had, which probably meant it was the most. Like I didn't. What is the most? Do you know what you actually?

I don't know. It was over 10, I'm sure. I know that year at the Nationals, the year that you saw me. So Thursday night, Thursday night. You weigh in Wednesday. Back then you could weigh in Wednesday night for Thursday match. So you've got a lot of time to kind of get. And then Thursday night, you weigh in for Friday. So Thursday night, I weighed in for Friday. You could go Friday morning, but you don't want that because then you got to weigh in and then wrestle. You know, like I wanted to get it. I was the last guy to make weight. But I remember they said, um, all 150 pounds, you're released. You have two hours basically to before we weigh you in. And I see. And I got on the scale and I was nine and a half over. And I made it. You did. I made it. I made it.

it, but it was two and a half hour. Yeah, and it was one of those things were basically you get to where that last pound and a half, you got nothing. You can't, you can't, I can't go back on the bike, I can't, so you just basically there's somebody with you and like, coach, and they'll just put you in the sauna.

You know, they would, they would put you in the sauna and they'd come in every now with a hose and just hose you off to make sure you're alive. Is that right? And we tried to drink the water. Yeah. Stop drinking the water. So, yeah, man.

And then you would drink, you would drink Gatorator, you know, my friend Bobby Crawford drank a Diet Coke, which is probably the worst thing you could do. Dude, I love Diet Coke, and that is horrible. Before you're wrestling after you're dehydrated already, like severely dehydrated already?

Yeah, yeah, that's probably terrible. So, you know, I just want to say, like, if you're cutting weight like that, what kind of fucking energy and performance do you have left to go out there? I mean, back then, it wasn't terrible because like so you weigh in Thursday night and then I saw you know the day that you saw me or the day that you were there I'm wrestling Friday but I had a full 12 hours to kind of rehydrate oh so as long as you make that wait Thursday night come Friday even if you are 10

pounds heavy you're not weighing in again your go you're back now you have to weigh in Friday night if you keep for Saturday yeah yeah I see so the more you go the more you got away this is all different now like they got rid of it some kids died and they did yeah i think they died because of creatine and dehydration but they some kids died so they now it's like an hour did you have problems with it uh this cutting weight and stuff and all that i mean i think i have problems now because of it yeah i don't know if like health but like i i have an unhealthy relationship with food tell me about um me too bro do you you know i i love to eat my Yeah. Okay. And I also, I, if I'm bored, I like to eat. Yeah. If I'm sad, let's eat some.

There you. If I'm happy, let's celebrate and eat some. Yeah. I definitely have an unhealthy relationship. Yeah, man, you said, you covered most of them. But yeah, I think it's like bored, sad. I've had some mental stuff with like guilt, you know. And I, I, it was funny. I was living out here probably early, I'm in 2006. six or seven and I realized I was the binge eating and just gotten out of control, you know, and I was just, I was just binge. And I think part of it was some, I didn't know that I had some, like, I found it a lot later. I had some OCD guilt type stuff, but I would just be like freaking out about it and I would just eat. And it's also, you're trying to get started in comedy and, you know, or I'm out here and I got a little bit of heat and you're, you're up and down 10 times and

you just saw, you know, it's a much more boring story than the guys that have real drug problems. You know, those guys did cool stuff. But I just went to jack in the box or whatever. And what would be an order for you? Well, I know. Be honest. Yeah, man.

First of all, how big are you? You're what, six what? You're tall. No, no, man. I'm five nine, man. Are you? Yeah, yeah. I'm not taller than you.

Yeah, you are. I got an inch on you. Yeah, you got an inch on. You're taller than me, man. I've seen you, man. So I'm, but I remember I would go to Jack in the box and then when it really, I would go get that, um, Oreo ice cream was just coming out back then. And then it.

But then I would get, I didn't, at one point I didn't think that one of them was enough. And I, and I also didn't feel that they put enough Oreos into the ice cream. So I'd get Oreos. And then I would get a package of Oreos to put in there to supplement. I remember I was at a checkout thing. one of them. I was like, hey, man, you know there's or else. I was like, yeah, I know, man. Like, I know, I know. So I'm doing all this and I finally realized, like, I should probably- You know those Oreos in the Oreos on there. Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, I do. Why? Why?

Why do you mind your own business? Because this is a project that I'm working on. But I went to see somebody in L.A. in the Valley. Why? What got to you? Was it your weight? Like, did you step on a scale? Like, what was? No, I was never terribly overweight. I just because I could work it off, you know, but... So what made you go to see somebody to say, look, man? I think some level of depression and then some level and just knowing the binge thing was out of control, you know. So I go into this guy in the valley and, you know, it was through insurance, which

if you're going to go see a therapist, don't go through insurance. Those guys, he was a nice guy. So I'm sitting there, I'm telling him, I'm like, I've never been to therapy before. And I'm telling him about like, yeah, man, I, you know, I eat cookies and stuff, you know, and he's he's he's he's he's he falls asleep no yeah dude the dude falls asleep and i'm telling my and then and i he catches himself falling asleep he goes hey man i'm really sorry he goes i was up with a suicidal patient last night in the hospital i'm like but tell me again how much you like ore you i know exactly i i just like what i'm a grown man in here talking about eating cookies and there's some poor guy that's

Do you know the shit I've heard in his office today? I'm like, I got to go, man. I don't want to do this. I don't want to go talk about. I'm here telling cookie stories. You bored him to death in my stupid cookie story. Since then, Ryan, I have punched it up a little bit. Like, I can get, like I've punched up the cookie story.

Yeah. This guy fell asleep and that's when I was, it was one of those, I was like, man, this is pathetic. And I didn't go anymore. You didn't? I had a therapist one time and I'm in the middle. giving him my sob bullshit and the dude starts eating. And I stopped them right there.

And I go, hey, this is my time right now. What are you doing? He's like, I'm eating. I go, you don't schedule time for yourself to eat? He goes, I guess not. I go, do it on someone else's time. Yeah. I don't care.

I'm sitting here talking. I don't want to hear you chew your celery and shit. Yeah. You know what? He called himself on it. He never did it. That's cool. I went and saw him for two years after.

Really? Yeah, yeah. Weekly for a couple years. And he brought it up to me. because you're 100% right about that. I go, how would you fucking feel? If I'm coming in here crying and I'm just like, is that right?

Oh, yeah. Picking your teeth. Well, you know what you need. I remember one time, because I've been in the three or four therapists or whatever. All for this? No, I'll tell you what it. But this,

the cookie thing was the first time I started going to. I mean, what a shitty start. Do you know that thing? I remember one time I was in Houston, Texas, and I was working the last stop. And it was like, I ate, I went on a binge like that night. And I ate a bunch of cookies, you know, and whatever. And then there's like the stuff still sitting in the car. And I was like, I'm going to the gym.

New Leaf, you know. So I drive the gym and I eat a couple of the cookies. And I'm like, I don't want to go to the gym, you know. And then I remember somebody telling me, like, when you don't want to go into the gym, you go in, you get on the bike, or whatever you're doing, start riding. If three minutes later you don't want to go, just leave, you know. So I go in, I change, I get on the bike and I start riding in about 30 seconds. I'm like, no.

And I just, I go back down to the locker. I get my clothes. I go into the car and I eat all those cookies. You did. I'm all just sitting in the parking lot. Do you go back into the gym right for there? No, no, no, once I go, it's over. There's nothing but television or, you know, laying out like, it's done.

There's nothing. So I, if it's that kind of eating. And yet, I remember like some woman, like, walking by the parking lot looking in. And she, we were just house and cookies. Just house and cookie. And in the gym parking lot. Yeah. And she's, she looks at me.

And she just had this level of understanding. I could tell us. She was like, yeah, man, I've been there. She was kind of overweight, too. So I think she kind of looked at me like, yeah, yeah, I understand what you're going through. Then she got in. But so, yeah, I think I win a couple more times. But I stuck, I did go and find out I had this thing that was like, it's called scrupulosity, OCD.

It's like feeling guilty about stuff, sometimes about stuff you didn't even do, you know. Can you give me an example what you would go through? Like, is there anything you actually felt guilty? that you didn't do. Yeah, man. I mean, I'll give you some of the more tamer examples because I'm not sure.

Like, I remember as a kid, like, thinking there's like my brother's truck broke. And I was like, I mean, he's a little kid. And I was like,

I broke it, you know, like just because I remember in my mind thinking, like, but you didn't? No, I remember thinking like, maybe I did.

Like, maybe I accidentally broke it or maybe I broke it. I didn't know. But I can't prove to myself that I didn't. Um, I can't know for sure because it's in the past.

So I'm just going to say that I did and take the, date and that got into like you know um later in life i i just sort of obsessed i i just be like did i do that horrible thing you know if i saw some was reading a book about somebody that did something terrible you know or or watching tv about somebody that's like i i would uh and i think i just let me i just want to be clear i'm sorry then you would think to yourself not that i did i do this, but did I do this to someone in my life? Yes. I got you.

Yeah, yeah. Did I do something like that? Am I capable? Have I ever done something like that to someone in my life? I've ever. Where's that? Why? What do you think that comes from?

It's a former OCD. I didn't get that it was. And I think part of the eating, binging was like, that's how I dealt with. I'd be like, I might be a criminal. And then I just would just spend life's over and just eat. I know it sounds, it doesn't sound reasonable now. But yeah, just go eat a bunch of ding don'ts or whatever. and uh and um yeah and i went to i want to see in this this this i kind of in a just a average

checkup some guy was at how you doing man i'm like yeah i was sort of from that like you're fine you know like walk it off yeah i'm fine what am i'm fine i'm a guy yeah i come from a how you doing yeah i'm good yeah no one says how you feeling and if i feel like if more people to asked that question growing up, I would understand a little more to say, well, I don't feel anxious about this and scared about that. But also, I come from the world that you do. Like, nobody gives a fuck. How you doing? I'm good. And I just move on. First of all, that's rough, man, what you're saying. And like, I do need to say, like, I had parents that did care about my feelings, like that, you know, like that, but I do also think maybe it was just part of being a

man or just, and athletics, we're like, yeah. Don't be a pussy. Yeah, you're fine, man. And then And also, like, I look, I think you tend to be like, man, my life's pretty good right now. I'm telling jokes for a living. And I'm like, I'm not starving, obviously. But I'm, uh, what? That you just said right there is a thing for me too with food. Like, nothing made me feel safer and more secure. Yeah.

Going to bed with a full belly. Yeah. It was always, I'm going to wake up tomorrow and not be starving. I'm not homeless tonight. I'm not starving tonight. Like, I always had that. fear like am I going to be able to eat tonight? So I love to eat late. And as a comic we do anyway, I love, I know, I can't do anymore. I used to love to eat late. Yeah. Oh, God. Give me a pizza.

I'll fuck the whole pizza. Whole thing. No problem. Yeah. I won't eat the crust. Give her a pass out and the pizza guy shows up, but you order one and pass out. And then. What do you mean? You're waiting on it back when I was drinking, you know, it was poor pizza guys there. And, yeah. Yeah. We, um, yeah. So anyways, like this guy kind of told me like, um, this doctor's like, are you, maybe you're depressed. I'm like, yeah, maybe.

He goes, talk to this person we have on staff. And she was like, explaining what's going on. I did not want to talk about it. And I, you know, started telling her some of the details. And she's like, oh, this is a, this is a form of OCD, man. This is, just trust me. Like, this is, let me go find you. So they find me this guy and I walked in and he was like,

Yeah, dude, this is called script velocity, OCD, it's a thing. And, you know. Isn't it amazing, too, like, once you go seek knowledge and you're just suffering so much and there's people out there that can just, oh, it's this. Yeah. He knew right away. Right away. And I, and he.

So what's the, how do you work on that? Is that a medication thing or is that a mind over matter? Is it an awareness and try to work on not letting yourself do that? Well, I choose to ignore it and. That's why. Push it down, bro. Push it down. Push it down.

Yeah, yeah, no. I've been, there's some, it's like exposure is one way to do it, where it's like, do you, like, if, if you're afraid that you left the heater on, or you left the stove on or whatever. Okay. If you left the stove on or something and your gas stove on, there's a lot of people with OCD, they're like, I left the gas stuff. I got to go back and check and they go back and they check.

80 times. I get some of the treatment is like, well, just expose your fact that maybe the house is going to just have to burn down. You know, like, that's like you, you consider that extreme. And it does sort of desensitize you. So with me, it was like, okay, you think that you might have done this thing. Let's just say you did. And what's that world like?

You know, it's scary and awful. And I feel like a, you know, but for some, when you do sort of sit with it for a while, it becomes a little less real or it becomes a, you know, you, I have done some of the stuff I'm supposed to do. I should probably do more, but I've done some of it. And it definitely,

I know how to deal with it when I start freaking out about stuff. I still don't exactly. I still, I've gone through periods where I'm not, I'm eating completely healthy in the way you're supposed to for almost like years. And then I still every now and like, I've had a bad run of,

stuff in the last few months. I've been like that. I watched The Rock. I follow him and he'll be like, cheat day. And I'm like, fuck yeah, man. I'm might have a cheat day. And I'm like, the Rock's burning $40,000 that day, six days a week, right? Yeah, yeah.

It's, but man, when I go, it's all, and it's always in a convenience store. Oh, is it? It's never at like a sushi spot where you just get sick. It's always, is it junk food? Yeah, it's junk food. Junk food. Yeah. Because I eat pretty healthy when I'm not doing.

Yeah. But it's like junk food upon junk food. And then that, you know, the, those grub hub stuff and all that, that, that, and I can just deliver not, not just, it's, man, it's, and it's also like what we do, sometimes you come back on a Sunday from the road and you're just, like, sit down and I'm like, I'm not moving. And then I'm just, I'm not just, I just get. And then I, yeah. And then it gets, yeah. It's, uh, it's pathetic, man. But. I mean, I've had my battles with OCD too. I, I, I remember, like, I used to live with my grandmother and she. She had a remote control and it just had the, like, it was like rubber little pads for the numbers.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. And it was always a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And then some other ones at the bottom. And I would just run my fingers across them and count by three in my head. Yeah. And it'd go fours across.

Yeah. I got so good counting by three. Yeah. My fucking head. And then I would notice that I'd go up the stairs and I'd either try to go two at a time and count how many they were. And, oh, man. And then I would hear a word in my head.

And I would have to say it in my head and I'd break it down. I would do this weird thing where I would start on this index finger. Let's say you said bicycle. I go bicycle, bicycle, bicycle, bicycle, bicycle, bicycle. Until I hit the one. Cillibles until you hit the one again. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I was like, we got to fucking check in on this shit. I know it's a lot of trauma and shit because it's right after my dad dies or little my grandmother. And she's what it was for sure. Yeah. And I would go down to the basement. Bro. I'm not kidding.

you six times a night to check that goddamn door because I did not want to be murdered. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember one time my grandmother, I came upstairs. She's like, Ryan, she lived in the house for like 40 years. She goes, I've never felt safer and slept better in my home. I see you go down. I go, grandma, that shit's going to be locked. I promise.

It's going to be locked. They ain't coming in through that way. She loved it. She's like, don't go get that fixed. Yeah. Don't go get that fixed. She was like, she was like, this is probably. This is a good thing you're doing.

Yeah. I remember having to talk it out. I'm like, what's going on? And you realize all, you know. It's funny. Sorry, interrupt Pam. I remember as a kid doing like, everything had to be even. This is when I was the craziest.

And I haven't talked about it. What do you mean everything? Like, what are you doing? What had to be? Your steps. Yes. Steps. It had to be twos, fours.

Yeah. But this is the craziest thing that I, remember. I had an ice cream cone and the cone fell off. The ice cream fell off the cone on the floor and I got it back up when I had there. And then I did it

again. Because you had to do twice. Even though it was a bad thing. And I was with my friend Ted Rueger and he's like, what are you doing? No. I never thought of doing something negative twice.

I just felt like this it's a compulsion to have to Yeah, man, luckily, you know, that would have been a terrible time, dude. Yeah, yeah. Is that right? You dumped it again intentionally the second time because it happened once. I bet you I was in middle school at that time, whatever. Yeah, I mean, that's insanity.

Would you do that with any of like your work, your homework? Yeah. Yeah, I do remember that. I think it helped me be a good student because I would memorize shit. You know, back then the teachers were lazy in a way too where they weren't, it was just to memorize it. here it is on the test. Yeah. You know, it wasn't a really, did you learn so much?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I was able to game that a little bit. Yeah, exactly. In college, even I was like, I'm not going to class. I'm too tired from it. But I would just like, and then I would just practice memorize it. I would learn until I'm like, does this professor, this guy made me by his book?

Okay. We're going to be going by this book. I know everything I need to know is going to be found in this book. You know, that's the guy. Yeah. Like, we don't need to go to his class. It's all going to be in the book. You understood ego and arrogance at that point where it's like, well, if he wrote a book, he's probably...

And I got to pay this much money for your book. It's all coming out of this book. Why would you want me to learn anything else? You wrote a motherfucker fucking book. Yeah. Teacher didn't write a book. I'm going to be doing... I'm going to memorize your shit.

They would, man, memorization was a big part of West Point. Is that right? We'd stand in formation, you know, four times today. And they'd be like, what's in the New York Times? and and uh or what's in the news and uh or what's in the news and you would have to say it and certainly be like sir today in the new york times it was reported that you know and then you'd have to basically or what else like you had to know the front page you could you had to be able to be conversant on the front page of the new york times and the front page of the new york

times sports too yeah yeah yeah yeah which for me that was like kind of easy i'm like yeah whatever um would you be comfortable talking about your mom passing yeah man yeah were your parents still married? Yeah. Oh yeah, man. They were together all the time. Fantastic marriage. How's your dad right now? He's okay. How old is he? He's 80? He's remarried. He did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you like this lady? Yeah, yeah, I love her. Yeah, I love her. He's happy and yeah. How old she? Probably the same age. Yeah. She was a neighbor and then moved away and then. How old was he when he got remarried? That was just a couple years ago. Wow. So my mom had been gone for about three years and they started, you know, just you know, they're 75 or whatever.

They started hanging out. And, yeah, and then they got married. So, and it's, you know, I think it's elongated his life. And it makes me certainly worry less about him when I'm on the road. I was going to say, it's like he's got somebody. Yeah, when he lost, when he lost my mom. I think he was shocked. My mother, I think he was shocked that my mom went before he did.

And that really was hard on all of it. But for him, I think he was in shock for a year, you know, that he always sick. Did you know this was coming? Was it something she was sick? It was cancer. And it was, you know, she first told me about, discovered it in the, like, probably May, June of 2015 and went through treatment by November. They told us she was, you know, in remission.

And then it came back. And then over Christmas it started looking mad. And she was gone by February the next year, you know, and, uh, how old was she? She was 72. What kind of cancer? Ovarian, 70, ovarian. I think it originated there. It was, uh, were you there?

Were you able to say goodbye? Yeah, yeah, I was. I was living in New York and I was not sure I was going to stay in New York. Um, but I had about another six, seven months on my lease. and I was going back and forth during the treatment. And then I was, I was thinking I was going to like, I think it was maybe June the following year I had a lease till. And I was like, okay, I'm, I'll stay out there and just write it out.

And then maybe come back or do something differently. And I came home around Christmas and things were bad. And my roommate, Ryan Beck, it's a comic. I go, hey, man, I'm not coming back. I'm staying here. I'm not, I'm staying in St. Louis. And I want to be with my dad. and he was like I'll pay you he was younger and I was like I'll pay you just drive all my stuff out

and so I never never went back and I just I wanted to be with her for as much time as I had and I it made me realize I didn't want to be away from my family that much anymore I'm pretty close with them yeah yeah so then you go back to st. Louis you stay there and you start doing diving into comedy there yeah I mean I was already at that point I mean this was this was not that long ago so I was what I mean in the St. Louis community Did you come up there already before you went to New York? I came up in a few places. I came up starting in Houston, then Cincinnati.

But I was always living in St. I was always come back to St. Louis. So at that time, I'm a headliner. You know, St. Louis is a market where I sold a bunch of tickets. So when I was really close with the guys of the Funny Bone, and a lot of my friends were there. And so it was easy for me to come back in that scene. And that was still, even when I came back to St. Louis,

that's part of why it was easy to me. It was like, it was at that stage where I'm working 45 weeks a year on the road. So it's like, it doesn't so much matter where you live. And it was a much, I love New York and I love the, especially the comics I met there,

but it's a chaotic situation. So you're going from the chaos of the road right back into the chaos of New York. And then I was like, I'd rather be around family in between the road gigs. So it was easy. Yeah, that part of it was.

Did you have any good conversations with your mom before she passed? And did she ever get to see you perform? Oh, yeah, man. Okay, yeah. My mother was awesome, man. My mother was a writer. Oh, she was? Yeah, yeah.

She reviewed books for the St. Louis Post Dispatch for about 15, 20 years. And then she had a column in this paper called the Kirkland Webster Times, which is sort of a suburban paper. It was a humor column. and I go back and read it. I was going to ask you, do you have any of her? I have all of them. All of them. Yeah.

And I, is that crush you to read those? No. I'm getting emotional thinking about it. Yeah, I mean, I get tears in my eyes usually when I read one, but I also am like, it's such a cool thing to have. And I also feel like such a dirt. I was so into my own life that I didn't read them when she was alive.

And my mother was extremely brilliant writer, you know, and it's, not what we do. It's funny. They're very funny, but it's not where we have to be this. You know, it's more just, um, she's making a point and she's, um, also funny with within the point, you know. So, um, yeah, I try to post one, uh, every mother's day and on her birthday on, on, because social media. I wanted to ask you how you keep her memory alive. It's social media is good for some things, you know, I mean, uh, and that, it's kind of cool. cool where I'm like, you know, she was a local paper and a lot of people loved what she, they loved her column. The people that I still see people today out in the community, they're like,

man, I loved your mom's column. Is that right? Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. But now, you know, we have all these followers and I just put it on social media, like a ton of people can see it and people love it. And it's a lot of it's really cool. She was a really, really great writer and she was, she was very, very supportive. My dad was supportive too, a little harder on me in some ways, but also supportive. But my mother, like, like when I quit my job to do comedy, my dad was not. What was the job you quit? It was a good job. I worked for Procter and Gamble. I was in sales. I sold Giff and Pringles and Duncan Hines and like I was making a bunch of money. My dad was like not happy, but still supportive eventually. My mother was all for it right away. And, you know, it was very, very

happy for me. Do you guys have any good conversations before she passed that really stood out? I remember, God, I remember a lot of them. I remember she was in the hospital for a long time. And then they were like, hey, she's going to go home for hospice. Like, you know, and I remember so she did get to come home. She did get to come home. And she called me and I still feel bad that I wasn't there already, but she was like, could you come here? And I was like, yes. And I got down there and I rode home with her in the ambulance, you know. And once she got home, she was much happier.

I mean, I just much more at peace when she was in her house. She was just so sick of being in that stupid hospital for all that time. But so I definitely remember that. And we talked a lot. I, man, I remember this is interesting. I made her watch. I do. My mom read.

Everything. Everything. Like she read all the time. She reviewed books. She was an English major. She didn't watch a lot of TV. She didn't really care of her TV. But I remember it was hard for her to read, I think, towards the end. And she was terrible with technology.

Like she could not have figured out. So I got her like one of those old school, just a little pop-up, put the disc in. And it plays. And I got her that. And she watched. She just watched. No, no, it was actual, she would watch TV shows. Oh, so she got into it.

And I remember, I think it was modern family. She really loved it. ER, she really, like, you know, I'm, watched a bunch of TVs. I was like, we try this. Maybe Larry Sanders, I think she, she, she, yeah, that's a great one. Yeah, I think she, I think she liked it. But, yeah, we, we talked about that. And then I made her watch this Eagles, it was the Eagles documentary, you know,

The band. Yeah. And I never really watched music documentary. So I thought when I had the first time I saw it was like, this is amazing. They talk about this is like they weave the lyrics of the song into how they figured out. I'm like, that's, yeah, dummy. That's what every music documentary does. You know, and I was just so like, and I remember I'm like, why is one of the last things I made my mom watch was this thing?

And we watched it together. And she was like, yeah, I think she was saying like, she was like, she was like, Like it's good, but in her own way, she was like, yeah, and she liked the Eagles. I ain't getting that hour, man. She basically said, and Glenn Fry's a little arrogant, isn't he? She basically was like, and she was dead on the money. Like, he was like, he was like, he's like a little, he's a little self-congratulatory. Like, in her way and I'm like, God, this, I'm making my mom watch this dumb thing.

But man, I, and then I remember, um, uh, Bob Dylan. I remember playing that. I think it was a, we played, I played like a Bob Dylan album or something and my mother was very into music and I could just tell it affected her so. I remember sharing that moment, like so emotional, you know, at that point.

And like it really, really affected. It took her somewhere. Yeah, yeah. And honestly, at that point, my mom was on some pretty heavy pain meds, I would imagine too. But I remember that was a moment of like, yeah. But yeah.

So she got the pass in your home around her family then? Yeah, she ultimately. She died. Yeah, I was at my brother's house and, you know, my dad called us that night. We knew it was coming. And we, yeah, I remember going on a, um, me and my brother, Matt took her for a walk. She was in a, I think she was in a wheelchair or something. We took her for a walk.

Maybe the day that she got home from, uh, from the hospital and we took her for a walk and and uh that was a that was a great um that was really cool i could just tell she was she was really happy to be out and not in that hospital and walking with her two sons but then i don't know man you know you just uh i was i was really really lucky and i know when you were you know the theme of the podcast is some of your low moments and a lot of people i think their low moments are like you know they come from screwed up family situations and I didn't have that at all like and I think it's funny for me something to talk about my father was a wrestling coach and did push me anyway he did you know but like

in my opinion there was always a line where it was like he didn't cross it was like you know I'm pushing you hard I push you but if he did cross it he was immediately like you know I love you and this is not as important as that you know right yeah so am I so yeah man I and I do remember telling my mom that Like I remember telling her like how that's, you should tell people more stuff. And I remember telling her like, oh, God, I think I was in her some, I had a friend or somebody that was struggling. And I was like, man, they did, mom, they had a terrible childhood. And I did not. And I'm, thank you for that.

That's nice. You got to say that to her. Yeah, I did. You know, for you. Yeah, yeah. You're also old enough to understand that. And especially when you get into comedy, you're like, Jesus, great. Yeah, man.

So my friends went through, they went through. Well, it sounds like you lost your, you know. Yeah, my mom was gone. My dad died. We were 16 and it's over after that. Yeah, that's. Yeah, and I still remember. It's nice to you, because I have friends whose parents are still together and stuff now.

And they should be like, hey, thank you for a fucking solid childhood here. Yeah, I got lucky, man, you know, and my dad's still alive and he's 80 and he's pretty strong, man. And, you know, I'm... Does you ever still fuck with your wrestling? Did you ever, you ever come by him? You ever act like he's going to grab you? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He's still strong as an ox, too, man. Like, he's got some, played some football back when you played football, they didn't treat your injuries the way they should. You know, they just give you a shot and say go back out. Yeah, he told me there's a lot of that, you know.

But so he's got some, he's got some back pain. But, man, if he grabs you, you grab his shoulder, you're like, good God, man. My dad is, he's strong as an ox. He's still solid. Real solid, man. Yeah, yeah, real solid. This is a great episode. Thank you for coming on here.

Oh, yeah, man. Before we wrap up, I'm going to ask you advice you give to your 16-year-old self. Nothing is permanent, I think, would be the advice that I would give myself. Like, it's whatever this thing that seems like it's the most important thing or the thing that you failed at, just go try again or just, like, things change. and they usually have a way of working themselves out. I don't want to steal from somebody, but you know, the comedian Gary Goldman. Yeah, of course.

That is one of my favorite comics, but I've heard him say, I think he said it. It might have been in a bit, but he said somewhere he was like, you know, the M&M is like, you only got one shot. You know, he's like, in show business, you have so many shots. It's Gary Goldman, by the way.

Go see his, he's great. But I do think that, like, especially, and maybe that wasn't 16-year. old self, but you just, you're going to have so many runs at doing different things. And it's, it's never over. Right. That's great. It's never over. Yeah. Um, thank you again. Yeah, thanks. Promote whatever you'd like one more time. Your special, all of it, please. Oh, yeah. The special is called The Champ. And it's on, uh, it's on YouTube. If you Google it, uh, it's, it's not the movie with Ricky Schroeder and John Voitz.

Wait, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dude, that movie. That's the first one. I don't know which came first. either Champ or Black Stallion. Both of them made me cry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to remember which one came first. God, it's funny. We're talking about it. I sobbed at little Ricky Schroeder fucking.

Yeah. Wake up, champ. Oh, God. I remember seeing that in the first time. I'm like, what's happening inside me? And that's like, I'm that age right now. What the fuck? Yeah.

The champ. Blackstallion in the movies with my mom and dad. Do you know I just went on YouTube the other night, put it on my TV. I fast forward all the way to that fucking race and that little motherfucker. fucking kid throws it. Listen, I don't know who that kid is, but I'm looking at it. It looks like he really is riding that fucking horse. And that horse is hauling. And I'm in my house like, yeah, he threw that mask off. And I'm like, I'm getting, get it, God, man. I'm going to go watch that, man. I just watched the, you know, the race is so good

to build up. Yeah. Man, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, it's great to see you, man. It's awesome, dude. And as always, thank you guys as well. Ryan Sickler and all your social media. We'll talk to you all next week. Thank you.