The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Hannah Berner - BernerDew
Episode Date: July 15, 2024My Honeydew this week is Hannah Berner! Check out her new special, “We Ride at Dawn,” out on Netflix now. You can also catch her on her podcasts “Berner Phone” and “Giggly Squad.” Hannah j...oins me to highlight the lowlights of her childhood, becoming a nationally ranked tennis star, and how it led to her pivot into comedy. Starting as early as eight years old, Hannah talks about the dedication she had to the sport of tennis, leaving middle school in Brooklyn, New York, to attend a tennis academy in Florida. From playing on a boys' team due to Title IX to playing collegiately for Wisconsin, Hannah sheds light on the pressure, emotions, and mental burnout that came with having such high expectations placed on herself. We discuss how being hit by a car ended Hannah’s collegiate tennis career, allowing her to really find comedy, and the joy and fulfillment that have come with it. SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https://youtube.com/@rsickler SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON, The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! You now get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month! Sign up for a year and get a month free! https://www.patreon.com/TheHoneyDew What’s your story?? Submit at honeydewpodcast@gmail.com CATCH ME ON TOUR https://www.ryansickler.com/tour Austin, TX - Sep. 13th Dallas, TX - Sep. 14th La Jolla, CA - Sep. 20th & 21st Salt Lake City, UT - Sep. 27th Denver, CO - Sep. 28th Chicago, IL - Oct. 11th & 12th Detroit, MI - Nov. 8th Minneapolis, MN - Nov. 9th Madison, WI - Nov. 15th & 16th Portland, OR - Nov. 23rd Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Dec. 6th Tampa, FL - Dec. 7th Tempe, AZ - Dec. 20th and 21st Get 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 PODCAST https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187 SPONSORS: Seed -Support your gut this summer with Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. Go to https://www.Seed.com/HONEYDEW and use code 25HONEYDEW to get 25% off your first month.
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What's up, everybody? Ryan Sickler here.
And I just wanted to let you know that tickets to my fall dates of the Live
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The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler.
["The Honeydew, y'all.
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I am Ryan Sickler, RyanSickler.com and Ryan Sickler on all your social media.
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it's been that way for you. It ain't gonna be raised like that
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Okay. But it's this show with y'all, man. You guys have the craziest story.
I talk about all the time. We just had a dude call who had his hand amputated,
like the day before the call and he's got it wrapped up and he's calling us from his hospital bed,
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All right. That's it.
That's the biz. You guys know what we do here.
We highlight the low lights and I always say these are the stories
behind the storytellers.
I am very excited to have this guest on first time here on the honeydew.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Hannah Ber first time here on the honeydew ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Hanna burner
Welcome to the honeydew. Thank you for having me. I appreciate sorry. I was just signing up to your patreon. That sounded really enticing
I want to learn about nubs. I'm telling you it's the craziest
Stories you'll ever hear in your life. It's insane because you can imagine like I say all the time like it's awesome
It's it's wonderful to sit down and talk to comedians like yourself.
We have a brand new Netflix special out.
But also actors, athletes, whatever.
But these regular people out there, they call in and I'm like, well,
and they tell us stories that none of us can come.
And I leave here often thinking, I'm doing all right.
You know what I mean? I'm doing all right.
You know what I mean?
I'm doing all right.
Life is about perspective.
And we're, comic comics, we're spicing things up.
It doesn't happen the way we say it.
Exactly.
These people are real.
That's raw.
That's why I watch documentaries.
I don't want this fake shit.
That's right.
There's no hyperbole in Bug and Billy's story, you know?
No, my shit has been manufactured to be entertaining.
Before we get into your story,
please promote everything you'd like.
Oh yeah, so my first Netflix special is out right now.
It's called We Ride at Dawn.
And I have a podcast with my husband,
Burner Phone, where people call in actually.
Honestly, people are so much more entertaining.
I'm sick of myself.
I don't wanna hear myself talk anymore.
Tell me about you.
It's their show.
And then let me comment on it to make myself giggle.
And I do have a podcast with my best friend called Giggly Squad.
We talk a lot. That's what we do.
And yeah, I'm just so excited to be here. Talk shit.
And your special. Yep.
The streaming now on Netflix. Check it out.
I told you before coming in, like, I don't know, you see all these
specials with these introductions and some of them are like three minute, like clips like don't know, you see all these specials with these introductions
and some of them are like three minute clips.
Like you've never seen her before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's silly, she's spicy.
She's wild.
She's wacky.
There's a sparkly blazer.
She's on Netflix.
She's dirty and she only does sex jokes, you know who it is.
The worst shit ever.
And then it's just like a quarter of the bit
or like just the beginning of the premise.
So you're always like, did they bomb the whole time?
No, I fucking hate trailers and-
And they want you to pay an exorbitant amount of money
to have these companies do this shit.
And yours, I loved it.
Thank you.
I immediately was like, fuck yeah.
Thank you.
Like you look excited.
It's a look over your shoulder that just says everything.
You know, I feel like it just gets your personality out there.
You're excited.
You're excited to go out there with them.
It just looks like come on and have a good fucking time.
Yes. That all this fucking dumb nonsense.
Jazz hands. Like, oh, my God, do you believe this shit?
I come from like a sports family and I love like getting pumped up.
Like I'm the person like I want to be on the bench being like, yeah, shoot the three.
So I wanted to feel like I was a boxer about to go on.
But I do feel also like once you get to a Netflix
or creating something, people want you to pay other people
to do your stuff.
And I'm like, I feel like why would I pay people
who don't know my story, who I am,
to create a trailer that defines my hour?
I'm like, just let me fuck around and do it in Photoshop,
figure something out.
So I appreciate that you liked my 10 second trailer.
But look, I come from the producer world too.
My whole day jobs while I was doing comedy
was working in production.
So that's why I know how to do these things
and stuff like that.
You're better at your job too
when you know what's behind it.
Yeah.
So I did a lot of editing, like video editing,
and it definitely has helped my career
being able to be like cutting up low clips
and stuff like that.
So.
Well, good for you.
Woman in STEM.
Tell me about your family.
You're coming from a sports family.
I see you're wearing Knicks here.
So you're in New York? Can you tell. I see you're wearing Knicks here. So you're New York.
Can you tell I like sports and wear a Knicks jersey?
No, I am from Brooklyn, New York.
You are, okay.
Are you from the South?
I'm from, I get that a lot.
You've got a drawl on you.
I'm from Maryland.
I'm from Baltimore.
Oh, okay.
And I got a little bit of a drawl.
Yeah, hell yeah.
Which I say all the time.
I had no idea.
I feel like you're putting it on
because you've been in LA for a while now.
I sound like, in my head, I sound like you're putting it on because you've been in LA for a while now. I sound like, in my head,
I sound like you sound, okay?
And when I moved here-
I sound like a Midwest reporter.
People would be like, are you from Texas?
Are you from out, I'm like, what?
No, like you draw your-
You wanna go hunting.
And then I'm like, oh,
and then you start listening to more
and you hear like Stavi do the real accent.
And it's like, you know what?
Turn on the GoPro.
I'm going to shoot something uploaded to Hulu and Tubi.
Like that's a real hardcore.
So what are you?
So the so funny.
You're just tired.
I'm tired.
You're just drunk and tired.
You just sound drunk.
One dude told me, I had the face, he said,
Ryan said, how do you say it?
I always fuck it up.
If an afternoon nap had a face, it's right. Sickler's fucking
face. And I was like, that's fucking good.
No, I like you have good energy. Like I came in, I was running
late. I was like, this guy's going to be fucking pissed.
We're going to have an awkward conversation. You came in,
you're like, let's, let's chill out. We didn't have to start
yet. You have very good vibes.
Well, cause you said you, this was your last one. If you did, I'd be like, let's hustle.
Let's go.
Yeah, yeah.
And you got to pet the dog.
And we talked about what we're going to talk about.
Yeah, we had some pet emotional pet therapy.
So you're basketball, Knicks.
What do you football and hockey and baseball?
You know, I had a weird family.
It's really not that weird.
Half of them were like giants.
Other half Jets, half Yankees, half Mets.
So there was issues.
But all New York teams.
All New York teams, but there was some tension
in the household at a young age.
Walls were punched, no I'm just kidding.
But yeah, I had two different sides of the family.
Cause one was Italian, one was like whatever, mutts.
But yeah, I loved sports and I had a dad who was very like,
the way to win at life is to play a sport
for your career, you're playing a game.
He's like, if you play a game and make money from it,
you win at life.
That was the perspective.
And I was athletic at a young age
and he was kind of like, we can do this.
So it was fun, but I had a creative side
that I suppressed for so long when I became a tennis player
and I played for University of Wisconsin, go Badgers.
That's fucking awesome, yeah.
Thank you.
So wait, you were athletic young, like all your sports,
you were that one that was like a little better
than everybody else.
I was like that girl who's like a little weirdly fast
and I would just like run around.
They're like, she's hyper, but she's scoring goals.
At like 11 years old, I remember coaches sat me down,
like she needs to pick a sport
if she wants to go professional.
Like it was that kind of stuff.
And I think as a kid, it's really fun,
but it definitely fucks with you,
where like you realize early on like,
oh, when I win, people like me.
And that's where I got my value from.
Like, oh, when I'm winning, everything'm gonna go get some hot people like me. And if I, and that's where I got my value from,
like oh, when I'm winning, everything's good in the house.
If I'm losing, I'm a fucking loser.
God forbid I lose and the Giants lose.
Holy shit's gonna get fucked.
I feel like it's like hot people who are like,
everyone likes them because they're pretty
and then when they start getting aging,
they get scared because they're like, what am I?
What do I have now?
So I just like leaned in, I was tennis was my thing.
That was my ego.
So can I ask you this?
Because it's also interesting.
I'm thinking about it as well, paralleling it to like child actors.
Like you're going into this thing and this is it.
Not only you entering it now, this is what you're going to do for life.
This is what's going to set you up, have a career, all these.
Eight years old, my parents asked a coach,
do you think she could be a professional tennis player?
And the coach was like,
you know, I think she's starting kind of late.
I don't know if it's possible.
At eight?
At eight.
They tell me this, I don't know why they told me.
They told me, apparently I cried all day.
What a little psychopath.
And I was like, I'm now gonna prove you wrong
and I need to become a professional tennis player. I mean, I guess I had some kind of crazy drive at a young age, and I was like, I'm now gonna prove you wrong, and I need to become a professional tennis player.
I mean, I guess I had some kind of crazy drive
at a young age, but I just, I loved greatness.
I loved the idea of doing things
that people didn't expect from you.
I don't know, I just was, I had that,
and I loved making my dad proud of me.
So, I mean, it was a recipe for a type A,
overworked, hustling kid. So, I mean, it was a recipe for a type A,
overworked, you know, hustling kid. So at eight, is that when you shift into tennis?
Like seriously, what are you doing?
Are you going to camps?
Are you doing like, is it 24-7?
I'm doing, the thing is too, with the pressure of it,
is like, my parents, like I didn't come from money.
So like, at the time, you're just like,
oh, my parents are helping me with this they're like investing their hard-earned cash to
give me tennis lessons as a nine-year-old Hannah my daughter's nine
now in gymnastics I'm like it's $3,500 for what?
For her to tumble around? For her to fall off the fucking, for her to twist her ankle?
I'm like what? A cartwheel? Will you get a photo too? I, for a twister ankle. I thought of what? I'm like, what? A cartwheel?
Will you get a photo too?
I can do that on my phone.
Like what are you talking about?
No, literally.
It's so, and you don't know as a kid,
you're just like, oh, I have to go practice.
But I loved practice.
But from an early age, I realized like,
when you're winning, like everyone's happy.
And by 14, I was ranked like top 10 in the nation.
Damn, really?
I was out here in the streets hustling.
And are you staying in high school,
or at that point are you in like a program,
or what happens then?
I got sent off.
I did get sent off.
They have that moment where they're like,
you're in New York.
If you wanna compete with the best,
you have to go to Florida,
because they're playing all year round.
And I went to a tennis academy
where we played six hours a day,
and then went to the gym at night.
And I was like running in the morning.
And that's where like stuff got a little too much for me.
Cause I'm, you know, your brain's not fully formed,
you're 15, you have no clue what's going on in the world.
And I was alone and I was changing my grip,
like different technique was being changed
and it all hit me and I just felt like way too much pressure
and I started to have like pretty bad performance anxiety.
What happened?
Like before going on the court, getting dizzy,
being scared to hit certain strokes,
but like still figuring out how to win,
but like tennis is a hilarious game
because you'll see people lose their mind on the court.
It's the one sport, people are breaking things,
yelling at themselves, yelling at the refs.
It's because you can't call time out,
you can't pass the ball,
you can't talk to your coach to calm down.
Tennis is you battling yourself,
which you can argue standup is a little similar,
but I just remember feeling overwhelmed
and a disappointment,
because I was letting the pressure get to me.
And then I asked my parents, I said, I wanna go home.
So I went home and I went back to school
and I joined a public school that just had a boys team.
And like title nine says, if you don't have a girls team
and the girl who plays, she has to be able
to at least try out for the boys team.
I remember my dad said to me, he goes,
you can quit right now.
He's like, fuck all this bullshit.
I remember we're on the court and my dad was like,
you can quit and I will love you.
And he like hit me a ball and I was like,
get me back in there.
So I joined the boys team.
There's actually, there was a-
So wait, let me ask you this.
At this time, you're 15, what's your strength?
What's your best serve?
What do you-
I had a really good backhand and I was really fast.
Like I could get to everything.
Moving around fast.
Yeah, and I also was like, I would play mind games.
Like if I saw something annoyed her,
I would just keep doing it.
So I was good at competing,
but I also was like fighting my own self while trying to,
because sometimes you're like,
okay, I have insecurities about my game, but she has more insecurities about her game.
So it was a lot of like problem solving,
but at the end of the day, I didn't realize
I actually didn't like competing.
No?
No.
I loved practicing.
You just like pleasing your dad
and making people feel happy and caretaking.
Yeah, and I did like the performance aspect
of being like, look at these shots I could hit.
What was your fastest serve?
Good question.
I mean, I probably could hit like 120.
Damn!
I have like a good arm.
I'm not like a huge server, but back in the day.
I'm fucking ducking.
I wouldn't even try to return your serve.
I'd be this guy, quit fucking around.
You know, give me that half speech.
It is this way, there's a lot of guys,
like even in college, the football guys would be like,
I could play you tennis.
I go, I will fucking drill the ball down your throat.
And it was fun. It was it was crazy.
Were you good enough?
I always wonder this, to fuck up your first serve on purpose
just to try to play and see what's going to happen so you
and know you could get that second one over without a fault.
You know what I'm saying?
Am I asking it right?
Well, people say, if you know tennis at all,
you're only as good as your second serve.
So the second serve is the one that-
That's the one you pay attention to.
You can't miss, and if it breaks down, you lose the point.
So you could see people with all these great forehands
backhand, if their second serve is weak,
that's the strength of their game.
But tennis is crazy, because yeah, that's like the strength of their game. But tennis is crazy because,
yeah there's the variables of,
oh that player has a huge forehand,
I have to hit it to their backhand,
oh I don't feel comfortable serving to the backhand.
And it reminds me of standup,
how like you have your jokes,
but you're like okay,
we have a person throwing up over there.
And like this is,
as far as I'm over here,
this is my like third show,
I'm fucking tired.
And I guess I have that familiarity.
Where you got someone heckling,
telling them their life story,
I'm like, I don't care, that's your fucking birthday.
And so I feel like the stuff that I hated about tennis,
I've found didn't happen in comedy,
but then I find similarities that I'm like,
oh, I actually feel like familiar with this,
but tennis, I was really mean to myself.
Like when I messed up, I was like,
you stupid dumb bitch cunt.
We're stand up.
This is what you're saying to yourself
when you mess up, you would, huh?
I remember like I would try not to curse
in front of people and then on the court,
I'd be like, fuck shit, fuck shit.
And I was so mad, so mad.
Little 14 year old girl would be like,
you fucking asshole, fucking ballsucking motherfucker.
And I'm literally like, hi.
Um.
But I try.
I'm Hannah from the Bronx.
I'm 14.
I'm saying you guys fucking suck and I'm,
just smashing rackets.
But with comedy I was like, I don't have,
I'm doing it because of me.
I don't have my parents paying for anything.
I don't have coaches.
I don't have a team's pressure.
I said, I can choose how I speak to myself after a set.
And once I realized that I don't have to be mean to myself,
like it changed my life.
That you don't have to...
No.
It's perspective.
You don't have to beat yourself up. You don't have to be homeless and go through the struggle.
You just gotta be, you gotta love your motherfucking self.
But it takes a while to get there.
It takes breaking rackets and calling yourself a dumb cunt
when you're on the set.
It does.
It takes being in the dark place to know.
100%.
And once I realize like.
You have to sit in your own shit for a while,
figure it out, then get up and move forward.
And the most fucked up part about it is that like,
it's actually, it's been in you. And the most fucked up part about it
is that it's actually been in you.
You're going to all these external things,
like well if I, I mean obviously therapy's good,
but you're like if I change this, and if I do this,
and if I ice bath, and if I fucking do the comap.
Brands work, and if I yoga, and if I do that.
When it's like you actually, it starts with you
just deciding for a second, let's not call ourselves
an asshole for a second.
And then you realize, oh, I could choose happiness.
That's crazy.
And you're like, no, I shouldn't.
I think about that too,
because I look in the mirror
and what I do when I look in the mirror is critique myself.
You look tired.
You look like you need a nap, motherfucker.
I look bags under my eyes, all of it.
I never walk in the mirror.
I shouldn't say never because I try to make myself,
but I could probably count them on one hand.
You have a nice tan.
Thanks.
I'll say that to myself later.
When I walk in the mirror and I say, you look nice today,
I never do that.
But it's funny, because that energy,
not to get all woo woo LA, because I'm a New Yorker,
but that energy, people sense it.
Like, if you talk to yourself good in the mirror, they feel energy, people sense it. If you talk to yourself in the mirror,
they feel that radiating off you.
And actually, things change around you,
and I really think with tennis, I was so negative,
and it did affect how I would play.
They say the best athletes have more,
after they mess up, they more quickly have positive thoughts
than an athlete who's not as successful.
So they're able to like fuck up and then in three seconds
be like focused on the next point.
All right, we know we're better than that, let's go.
Yeah, instead of being like, I knew this would happen,
you're fucking stuck, it's gonna happen again.
You know you're dumb fuck, you did it again.
And I don't know how people get to that,
but I think with stand up I try to be like,
whatever happens I'm like, oh wow, we learned.
We learned, I'm proud of you, we learned on stage.
Where I would never do that with tennis, with tennis, I'm like, you dumb wow, we learned. We learned, I'm proud of you, we learned on stage. Where I would never do that with tennis.
With tennis, I'm like, you dumb bitch,
wasting your parents' money.
Wasting your parents?
You stupid dumb bitch.
So when do you realize you're gonna go D1
and do you have a ton of opportunities?
Mm-hmm.
So I, well, I did have fun on the boys' team.
We ended up like-
Yeah, tell me about that.
We ended up-
We kicked in their ass and stuff too.
The guys on the team were so funny
because I was a international player
and most high school teams,
these guys aren't playing the extent that I'm playing.
So I actually kind of was, I should be beating them,
but these guys would go on the court
and the guys on my team would be like,
hey, take it easy on the girl, take it easy on her.
They loved joking with it.
And I was winning a lot.
There was a New York Times article about it
because some people were mad
that I was playing on the boys' team.
They thought it wasn't fair.
And the cutest thing about it is when I graduated,
they created a girls' team that my dad coached.
So it was a Disney movie.
It was a Disney movie. It was a Disney movie.
Where's that script out in the fucking,
that's next Netflix.
I was like, dad, don't yell at these girls, okay?
Be nice to them.
That's nice.
But he's a coach.
So when I went to college, it was again like,
I wanna go pro, I wanna go pro.
But going pro in tennis is, it's kind of fucked up
because unless you have like a big sponsorship,
because you're ranked really high
You only get paid when you win. You have to pay for your own travel. Is that right? You have to pay for your coaches
like if
And also if you're the 600th ranked tennis player in the world, you're not making money
You have to be like top 100 and like the top 600 not to make this an ESPN podcast
But top 600 football guys doing pretty well.
Listen, we're a fan of Michael Kosta out there,
who also was- Shout out Michael.
Shout out Michael Kosta, who also was a pro tennis player,
and I forget what he was ranked.
And he did that grind.
He did that grind where you go, you travel,
and you do well, but it's not gonna pay the bills.
If you're, still, if you're in the top 500 of something.
Of anything. It's insane. Yeah. And in the world like he's
an incredible player and but do you know where you were ranked
globally? So when I was like 16 and 18 and under I was ranked
like 200. God I was I was out here. I was out here but I was
miserable. Isn't that crazy to be so good at something and be so unhappy doing it?
Oh, because you know what?
It was like a drug to me that when I would win, I would feel nothing.
And when I would lose, I would be devastated.
And when I'd win, I just go, oh, thank God I won.
I see. Because like the better you get, the more expectations.
That's why like top athletes are so fascinating to me
because they have to be so mentally good.
Because every time Serena goes on the court when she played,
if she loses, that's the greatest match
that other persons ever played.
That pressure is crazy.
But I think honestly what made me not wimbled in
is because I have the brain of like, I'm worrying,
I'm coming up with funny shit in my head,
I'm overthinking stuff,
and that's the kind of thing that made me a better comedian.
So the same thing that makes you bad at something.
Make you great at something else.
But it takes balls to be like,
just because I'm okay at something
doesn't mean it's what I'm meant to do.
That's right.
That's a big thing for people.
A lot of people get comfortable and be like,
I guess this is it. This is me.
This is me. It's like, maybe, maybe it is.
You can choose it.
Yeah. So I want to ask you a couple of questions. I want to know a time where you were sure
you're Buster Douglas or I should say Duster Bugless. You know who Buster Douglas is?
No idea.
He's the guy that beat Mike Tyson when he wasn't supposed to win and all his mom just died.
And they went to Tokyo and thought they were going to wipe the mat literally with them.
And they didn't bring, they brought a, they had a rubber glove for his swelling because they
weren't expecting him to get his ass beat.
Yeah.
And Buster came in, but this drunk one night in front of Caroline's when I was in New York
doing comedy, he came up to me and he's like, he goes, remember that guy,
Duster Muggles.
And I named my fantasy football team Duster Muggles.
I fucked him up.
All your passwords are Duster Muggles number one.
Duster Muggles number one.
Duster Muggles makes me laugh so hard.
I couldn't even listen anymore.
I just was laughing so hard.
I was like fucking love it.
He was the funniest person in the room, this blackout guy.
So do you have that moment, that story where you were sure,
I'm like, I'm gonna fuck this girl up,
I'll fuck the guy up, and then they gotcha.
Do you have one?
I think, I remember everything was going pretty well,
but you know when everything looks okay,
but deep down you're simmering,
you could snap at any moment.
I was in the semi-finals, I beat this girl the first set.
Is this in college?
This was actually, I was playing an international tournament and I was like missing home.
I was mad at myself, whatever.
And me and my coach start fighting after I won the first set because he's like, hit your
forehand more.
And I was having mental blocks with my forehand.
And it gets to the point
where you just get so mad at yourself,
and you're trying so hard,
but when your brain is not doing what you want to do,
you feel lost.
And I just remember, I start tanking.
And tanking is like the ultimate no-no in tennis.
Tanking means you start purposely losing,
because I'm so mad at him, I'm so mad at myself.
And they can tell? Basically, I'm so mad at myself. And they can tell?
Basically, I'm just hitting balls out.
Oh, I see.
Like you're having a full tantrum.
You're hitting in the ground.
You're having a full mental breakdown.
I'm crying.
You're literally crying.
One thing about me, I can win tennis matches crying.
The amount of matches I've played sobbing,
just like, ah, ah.
Winning?
I've won matches crying. Because my coach is yelling at me. I'm not doing what he wants me to do
I don't know if it's a skill of women, but like I can be bleeding and crying and I can fucking
You know I wasn't I was not happy, but it's funny
No one was like maybe we should have shouldn't do this they're like keep going girl. You're doing great push through well, so with sports but it's funny, no one was like, maybe we shouldn't do this. They're like, keep going, girl, you're doing great.
Push through.
Well, also with sports, it's always like,
you don't show emotion, you can't show that you're nervous,
you're scared, so you start gaslighting yourself,
and you're like, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
I'm not listening to the demons.
And then when people are like, do you wanna take a break?
You're like, no.
And then you forget how to listen to your own inner voice
that's telling you like, hey, you know,
life could be better if you didn't torture yourself every day.
But I'm getting all the clout. It's like Hannah Berner.
She's a great tennis player. But I'm like empty inside and ashamed that I'm not
like that I'm losing to my brain on the court sometimes because I was
having performance anxiety and not coping with it well.
So how well did you do in college?
I played number one in college.
You did.
I played number one in college.
Who was your arch rival?
Like what person?
Are you allowed to say their name?
Let me pull full name.
Every year would be different
because like it would change,
but it was only like six girls on a team
and it was craziness.
And during the week you were competing for your spot
and then on the weekends.
What do you mean?
You weren't locked always?
No.
Oh shit, every week you're fighting for it?
Yeah, it was not.
Oh shit.
It was not a stop.
It's not like a football or a soccer
where like you're the goalie and that's a locked position
unless you really fuck up.
It was like pressure all the time,
but I just told myself like,
if you wanna be champion, you have to deal with it.
And I never thought like, you don't have to deal with it.
But I remember they'd show us like the calendar
at the beginning of the year.
It showed like every day what we had to do for like a year.
And I fucking hated that shit.
Like I hated being told where to be, what to do.
I hated rules, but I was suppressing
that like creative side of myself
that just wanted to be like, let's draw, let's be silly.
I did get in trouble a lot for laughing
because I would either cry or laugh.
Yeah, what else is there?
I remember we were at weights at 6 a.m.
I started joking around.
He goes, Burner, if you giggle one more time,
you're doing laps.
Of course I ended up laughing.
He had me running the basketball court doing suicides
for like an hour in front of everyone.
And like, at the time I'm like, you stupid dumb bitch.
But now I realized like, I just needed to cope
with like the pain of being stuck in something
that I didn't know.
Also, I got a full scholarship, so like if I fucked up,
my parents would have to pay.
So there was a lot of pressure as a young kid that,
yours told pressure's a privilege,
but that shit fucks you up.
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Now, let's get back to the do.
What were your top three choices for college?
So my mom went to Cornell.
Oh, she did, okay.
She wanted me to go there, the Relatable Ivy.
And-
Is that what they call it, the Relatable Ivy?
I didn't know that.
And I just made that up.
And that-
They should steal that.
Hardly people would be like, ew.
And then I was looking at UPenn too,
I was looking at Penn State and Wisconsin,
I went on a trip.
They show you around campus,
and the program was incredible when I went there.
Russell Wilson was there, if you know,
J.J. Watt, Frank Kaminsky.
All the same time while you were there?
It was a crazy year, like four years.
We went to the Rose Bowl.
It was crazy, and I was like,
I wanna be one of these top athletes.
So long story short, my senior year, I got hit by a car.
Nah.
Cause the universe has your back, bitch.
The universe is like, you need to sleep.
You got hit by a car?
I sorta got right before.
Walk in or like out of a car or in your car?
6 a.m., I'm walking to weights
and it's like two degrees outside.
You're doing the right thing by yourself.
It's snowing, trying to be a good student athlete
and I had a hood on with fur
and I didn't see the car coming and they hit me.
And the first thing I said.
And where on your right side?
On my right side.
Did you roll up, what happened to you?
I was thrown and it's funny
because I actually didn't make any money
from it because someone saw that I was walking
on like not a walk signal.
But the guy, I was already halfway across the street.
Like he definitely didn't know.
Whatever, long story short, I'm over it.
But the first thing I said to the police or whoever came,
I was like, tell my coach I'm going to be late.
Like I was just so scared that I was gonna get in trouble.
And then I got back for like all big 10,
like the big 10 season, but I was,
my whole thing was being fast.
And like, I was like 0.3 seconds slower than I was.
And I lost a bunch of matches in tiebreakers.
It was one of these things where I just was like,
you know what, I feel like the universe is telling me
not to do this anymore.
And it was so fucking,
it was the longest relationship I've ever had.
It was like the worst breakup you've ever had.
And then you're sitting there like,
I didn't end up going pro.
I don't know what I'm passionate about.
Why did I torture myself for 20 years?
Did you graduate?
Yeah.
So you did play all four years?
I did all four years.
And you played.
And actually my last semester,
because you're on scholarship,
they have you like work a little.
So I did some sports broadcasting
because I liked athletes.
And I remember being on camera and being like,
okay, this is kind of fun.
And I learned how to edit.
So I would do some like you could even search like how to burn a Wisconsin.
And I'm like interviewing like the basketball team and stuff.
But to admit that you like want to be on cameras, like I think a hard step.
It's like, oh, you want attention.
So I kind of and they were like, oh, if you want to be a sports reporter,
you got to go to a small town.
And I was like, I want to go back to New York
and be with my family.
So I just went back to New York
and said goodbye to my dreams.
So we were talking about this before.
Like, I always wonder about these athletes
that give their whole childhood, high school, college years
to this sport, hoping, now tennis is one that you could go
and play in your 20s, 30s and make gazillions of dollars.
But I always think about Olympians,
like what the fuck are you doing
after you play second in the javelin?
That shit gets me so emotional.
What are you doing?
There's a documentary about it.
Give your whole life to that.
There's a documentary about, yeah,
like you lose by 0.00 seconds, and they're like,
oh, if you got it, you would have had a spot.
Even the people who win, they get sponsors for two years,
and it's done.
Like Mary Lou Retton, people like these
that were American heroes for Olympics.
For a second.
Where are you at now?
And you know their body hurts.
Yeah.
It's funny, though, if I'm going to cry,
sports stuffs make me cry.
You ever see an Instagram of a girl losing a race
and then she trips and then she comes back and wins?
That shit gets me fucked up.
I'm sobbing.
But something about cancer happens.
I'm like, okay, it happens, that's life.
But sports, someone who's like...
The autistic kid coming off the bench,
shooting a three.
Oh my god, that gets me every time.
I'm like, ah,'s going to be every time.
I know, this juice can't stop.
I believe in the world.
I believe in God.
It's beautiful.
Nothing makes me cry like an autistic kid hitting a three.
You know what I'm saying?
Off the bench, the equipment manager, you got clean towels and hitting threes.
Oh my God.
Then they win the game and everyone's holding them up.
Everybody rocks out.
Honestly, I fucking cared too much about sports.
I cared so much that it almost,
it made me like, I put too much pressure on myself
where I feel like comedy was a thing
that my parents weren't behind and no one knew about that. I was like, it's kind of crazy.
I'm even on stage.
So I can't I had such a different perspective where tennis, whenever I walked
on the court, I'm like, I need to win because this is who I am.
And this is all I have.
And that's fucking hard to play free with that.
How do you walk away from that?
What happens when you say, I'm hanging up my racket?
I went from like being captain of the team to being, to doing cold
calling sales in New York City.
Just calling for what?
Selling digital marketing.
And my dad was one of those dads, he's in sales and he's like, you
want to be successful, you got to do pro con sales.
Oh, he was always doing both.
I don't know how he worked during it.
I'm like, did you ever work?
But he, it is a lot of athletes going to sales
because it's like competitive.
You get that excitement of like the highs
and the lows of competition.
But I was like, I feel like I just went from tennis
to this where like I was miserable.
But I was like making money.
Like I was pretty good at it. And then I quit it and I went into marketing but I was like making money. Like I was pretty good at it.
And then I, I quit it and I went into marketing cause I was like, I want to be creative and that shit is boring as fuck.
No offense.
I appreciate the art of it.
People don't listen to your ideas.
Well, yeah.
Cause you'll, you'll be like, I want to do this.
Isn't it interesting how when we've gotten to a point in our lives where we
don't have to listen to other people's ideas and shit things start going good
Hannah burner. Hey like this
It's the most empowering shit ever. That's all that's all we need guys. All I want to do is make my own mistakes
$15,000 showing up your ass. That's all we need. All I want to do is let me make the mistake. I can live with that
Yeah, and
Yeah, I didn't know I I wanted to, but tennis is pretty entrepreneurial.
So I, but I wanted to show that like
I could be a corporate baddie.
But let's talk about real money for a second.
Like you said, you could be whatever 70th or what, where,
what number could you actually make a living?
Top 20, top 30?
Like where are you making?
You have to be like top 100.
Okay. To be making money. Which is insane. I mean, that's insane. And to get to top 100, you have are you making? You have to be like top 100 to be making money.
Which is insane.
I mean, that's insane.
And to get to top 100, you have to play
so many tournaments to get there.
Oh, so there's a whole thing you have to do to be?
Yeah, you don't just like win one match and become,
like you have to start with small tournaments
and then slightly bigger tournaments
and then you qualify for other.
It's a whole process and it's actually a thing
like they're working on because they know there's an issue.
And then also, also you're competing,
if you're competing against the top people,
these people went on a private jet.
They have a masseuse.
They've slept for 10 hours.
They've slept for 10 hours.
They're fucking injecting themselves with, you know.
Meanwhile, you're like dying.
You were in economy, you were,
and you're dehydrated, you're scared.
You don't even have your coach
because you can't afford him to come
and you're expected to try to beat them.
So there's this like wide range of, it's hard.
It's hard to break through.
But I guess I just always thought like,
if you try hard enough, your dreams will come true.
So it was kind of sad being like, oh, like, damn it.
I tried really hard, I worked my ass off,
I wanted it, I was good.
And you were great, yeah.
And I did well.
Yeah.
And I like, my dreams didn't come true,
so I was kind of like a little pissed at life.
I was pissed at the world for a bit.
I get that, I would be too.
You put all that time and dedication to something
and you're great at it, and like now it's just like,
and okay, and it's over.
I literally remember crying going, why?
Why?
You know, you're like looking in the mirror
and you're like, why?
Why is good.
Why, why, why?
Why?
Why?
And then I remember everyone's, what the fuck?
It is a what the fuck though.
I just gave my whole life to hit this god damn ball.
It's the same old same life where you're just like,
I was like, I really did not have to do that.
I would have done something different.
There's a joke by a comedian, shame on me,
he's an older comedian, he's a black dude
back from the 70s or whatever,
he had glasses and a beard,
he was in Car Wash, you would definitely know if you saw him,
I wish I could remember his name,
but he had a whole bit about being an Olympian
and training
your whole fucking life and busting your ass legit, putting time and effort in and coming
in last place. And he's just jogging and he's talking out loud. So I'm like, I could have
done nothing and come in last. You know, I mean all the money and time and effort I put
into coming in last and other people, yeah, but you still got the Olympics. You don't
give a fuck. Like you as a person Olympics. You don't give a fuck.
Like you as a person, like I don't give a fuck.
Because you not only lost, you've embarrassed your family.
You've embarrassed your country.
Your entire country shuns you.
He's doing a whole bit about talking.
You have to go into witness protection.
You fucking dumb fuck.
You thought you could win?
In every race, someone's last.
Yeah.
That's fucked up.
That's fucked up.
Someone who's good is last. Yeah. That's fucked up. Mm-hmm. That's fucked up. Someone who's good is last.
Yeah.
Someone who doesn't speak to their family,
sacrificed all their everything.
Irregular periods, all of it.
Lost their periods.
No more periods, all of it.
Shot up with cortisone.
They'll never walk the same.
Can't get pregnant.
Yeah.
They're fucking last.
They're last.
Yeah.
Someone told me once, they were like, you can find greatness in anywhere.
And that kind of, I remember that once because I was like, you have to get gold.
Or you have to win US Open. That's greatness.
And they're like, no, look across the street, people playing pickleball. There's greatness happening And I remember they're like, no, like look across the street, like people playing pickleball,
like there's greatness happening
and people having a conversation,
like there's greatness everywhere.
And it's funny when you're younger,
I feel like you love the little things.
And then getting older is like trying to find
the little things again that you like.
Not to be all like,
and do Huberman, but like you're trying to,
you realize it's not about those like crazy huge things.
But it's funny, once I chilled out,
then I started to see like actually what I enjoyed
and what I was good at.
And did you go into any sort of like,
I mean depression or anything like that?
You did.
Oh yeah.
So what'd you use to come out of it?
Was comedy like what really saved you then?
Or you? You know it was really saved you then or you?
You know it was really bad
because at one point I almost became a yoga instructor.
If any of your friends say
they want to become a yoga instructor, call 911.
They have no hope.
They want to do stretching for a living.
Also, I can't even touch my toes.
And I was like, I'm going to be a yoga instructor.
I was going to stand up do one of those retreats.
If, no.
So.
Why?
Did you feel lost?
Were you just trying anything?
I was literally throwing shit at the wall,
being like, I like to coach people,
I like to move my body,
I want peace and love.
It's dark shit when you're like,
I wanna become a yoga teacher.
It's like therapists, like no one becomes a therapist
having a good time.
But there's also no therapist who can relate to you.
What therapist has ever been at the top of their game
in a fucking tennis or a pro sport that can go,
hey, I understand what you're going through.
They can't, it's a really unique.
I looked for like sports psychologists after tennis
that just understood that shit.
Because it actually is so common,
this identity crisis after the sport,
because you're basically like, first of all, I'm a loser.
Second of all, who am I?
Who am I?
So I actually had no job,
but I remembered these old sports casting videos that I did.
It was on YouTube and I was selling t-shirts or something.
I was 25 and I was hating my job and I saw one of these old videos and I was like, I
want to do video.
I just said that and I started telling everyone, I want to do video.
I didn't know what that meant.
And this like, one of my friends was like,
hey, this company is looking for a video producer
with like five years experience.
And I was like, oh, I don't have five years experience.
But it was like this like millennial girl company
that does funny memes and tweets and videos.
And I was like, I'm just gonna apply with some examples
and ideas I have.
And they were like, hey, we like your ideas.
Like you're funny and you're the demographic.
Let's put you on freelance.
And I remember thinking like,
I felt like a horse that finally got in the right lane.
I was like, wait, let's fucking go.
And it was like boot camp.
They told me I would get like $20 a tweet.
I started like joke writing
where I was just trying to write tweets, write tweets.
I started to make some videos
and I started meeting comics in New York City
and hiring them to act in these funny videos.
I started act, I was directing.
I was like, wait, you can do this as a career?
Like be silly as a career?
And then I was like, well, you could go to work
and laugh and not cry the whole time.
And that was like, my life changed.
And I wasn't even thinking of standup at the time.
Right.
At that time, you're probably not making any money at first.
And you're just living with my parents.
You're loving it and you have a passion for it.
Oh my God, I remember thinking,
I want to do this job forever. I was like, I never. You're loving it and you have a passion for it. Oh my God, I remember thinking, I wanna do this job forever.
I was like, I never wanna lose this job.
And I did, I got fired.
How? How'd you get fired?
Cause I said yes to a reality TV show.
Oh you did?
And they were like, you're outta here.
They were like, no absolutely not.
And I was like, but this is my favorite job ever,
I love it.
But from there I started podcasting,
I started interviewing, like this job was,
it really was a comedy boot camp.
And I fell in love with,
like I would get paid no money to do that.
Like, and I think once you find that, like that's power.
Also back then too, you're in college
and they're not paying the athletes back then.
There's no portal transfers and things like that.
You're making zero dollars.
It was scary.
Are you on like a stipend or?
Yeah, you have a stipend and they would be like,
if you're late to anything,
you could get kicked off the team
because that's you like breaking your contract.
So like every day, I remember once I slept in accidentally,
I was, I lost my mind.
Cause like he didn't kick me off the team
because I was one of the good players,
but if he wanted to, he could have.
It's like a lot of, and he's trying to feed his family,
the coach, he has crazy pressure
cause these big establishments.
So when I was like, wait, we're all just fucking goofing
around and no one's yelling at anyone.
It was, I always had a goofy side that I was suppressing during tennis. We're all just fucking goofing around and no one's yelling at anyone.
I always had a goofy side that I was suppressing during tennis and I like to tell people like,
just because you're good at one thing
does not mean you can't be good at other shit.
It's just your brain that's limiting you
from what you could do.
Yeah, I agree.
So what would you say, do you have any lessons
from tennis that you carry over into life and stand up?
Like, what do you appreciate about that?
So with my stand up, I had started this podcast
called Burning in Hell, where I talk to people about
yeah, like some of their dark times.
Like I was like obsessed with that, like you,
because I was meeting people who were successful
and I was like, they must be miserable too.
Like I wanna know your dark shit.
I love that shit.
And I started doing it and Caroline's actually reached out
and was like, do you wanna do a live podcast?
And one of my comedy friends was like,
I dare you to do 10 minutes of standup.
So that's not-
You had never done it.
Never done standup.
She actually, she wasn't a standup
because a standup would have never told me
to do 10 minutes of comedy.
No, it wasn't. I was like, 10, do three to five tops.
She goes, why don't you open the show,
10 minutes of standup.
You have so many tweets, you have so many bits you've
written, and I remember thinking, OK.
And I had sold it out to 300 people,
and I remember right before the show,
this is also ignorance. Any standup would have been like,
this is a bad idea. This is not what you do. This is horrible.
But I had that kind of like ignorance's bliss of like I didn't
I didn't have any rules in my head telling me what was wrong or not.
But I remember right before I stepped on I go, oh my god what if
I, it hits me again,
and I get in my head again,
and I get that feeling with tennis where I can't perform,
and I disappoint everyone.
And I remember right before I went on stage,
I was like, oh, let's see what happens.
I get on stage, and immediately a calmness hits me
that I never had on the court, ever.
People would talk to me about,
oh yeah, you're nervous when you get on the court
and you hit a couple balls, you're good.
I would always be fucking so in my head.
I felt like I was talking to my friends at brunch
and I felt this freedom and then at the end of the show,
people were like, our favorite part was
what you did in the beginning,
whatever form of standup I was doing.
And I had some standup friends over there
and they were like, if you wanna do this right,
I don't know why I give them that voice.
Like, if you wanna do this right,
you gotta start saying yes to every show,
doing spots as much as you can,
like basements, whatever.
And I just remember being like, okay.
Like, I kind of found another fire again.
Cause I was, I wanted, I'm a little masochistic.
Like I wanted to chase something again and grind a little.
So I took kind of the work ethic, I think from tennis
with the more, less ego.
Cause with comedy, I'm like, I'm green.
I'm, it's cool I'm even out here. Well, at the time I'm like, I'm green. It's cool I'm even out here.
Well, at the time, I was like, I did have like a whole career before me,
but I was basically like, I'm not going to be hard on myself.
I'm not going to make this torture.
I'm going to do this thing for me.
And if it's not fun, I'll stop.
I mean, good for you for figuring that out.
Like I said, you probably know people in tennis that might have been
similar to you and just kept going because what else am I going to do?
You know what I mean? For you to take something at at the height of it and be so
good and say, nah, and then go back to like,
like zero. Yeah.
And then it's because it's not like you went,
I want to shut this down and go do this. I have a passion.
It's like, you gotta figure it out.
Yeah, I think they'd call it like the whispers
where like something's telling you like,
you don't wanna do this.
But then you can't tell if it's-
I wish I had more of those.
Oh, where are those from?
I wish I had screams.
Hey man, hey, don't do that shit.
I don't know.
For the fucking smoke signal, okay?
Yeah. But then sometimes you think it's the fucking smoke signal, okay? Yeah.
But then sometimes you think it's like,
people be like, never quit.
Like, you know, Gary Vee is like,
wake up at five a.m. and never quit.
So you're fighting those two things of like,
I don't wanna be a quitter,
but also I'm pretty sure I don't wanna be a quitter.
And I'm not out here trying to tell everyone to quit,
but like, life is too short to do stuff you don't enjoy.
Reassess. Reassess.
Reassess.
I feel the same about like relationships. I feel the same about relationships.
I feel the same about a lot of things where it's like,
you're not stuck in anything,
and look, you could go back if you want.
Go, I could go back.
I could be a pickleball pro if I wanted right now.
I could do it.
So I felt a freedom, and then comedy,
I was like, you got a little high.
And also, I would never, with tennis you're a loser.
Like you could be, oh I learned, no you lost.
You lost to that person.
You tried to beat them and you lost.
It's very intense.
For comedy I'm like, I'm expressing myself,
trying to bring some joy.
Maybe I don't do well.
You know, I'll change that joke.
Oh that's, I like that I had the balls to try that joke.
Like it's all, to me I was like, this is hard. Someone that I had the balls to try that joke. Like it's all to me.
I was like, this is hard.
Somebody's not in the crowd if it doesn't happen
and go, nope, that's one strike for you Hannah.
Nope.
Your dad's disappointed in you.
Your dad hated that one.
I got him on FaceTime.
Boo.
Okay, wait, can I ask you how young are you?
When I started.
No, right now, if you don't mind.
You don't have to say.
I'm 32.
All right. Do you still go out on the court?
Do you still fuck around at all?
So I do now.
Can you are you happy doing it?
You know what I mean?
Do you still beat yourself up a little bit?
It took me like six years to pick a racket up again.
Yes. I also did like a full gym strike.
They call it a lot.
Athletes do it where like you don't go to the gym
cause I would go to the gym and get emotional
cause I was like, you're a fucking loser.
What are you training for?
We're training to fucking walk to the coffee shop.
Like, what are we doing?
Like you used to work out.
Yeah, so I'd run the treadmill for eight minutes
and have to leave.
Like it was fucking sad, but no one really understood either.
They were like, just run in the treadmill, you stupid bitch.
And I was like, but he's freaking out, I'm a loser.
I lift some weights and I'm like, but it's like, to do what?
Cause yeah, I wasn't trying to lose weight.
Like I just was like, I'm a freaking loser.
Man, what a great perspective if you're a former athlete.
I wish I could just carry that into my regular Joe
or I'll lift some weights, for what?
For what?
For what?
I go, you're all just pretending.
What are we pretending to be?
You fucking fake ass motherfuckers.
I was trying to be a professional.
What are you using those muscles for?
Literally.
Was your one arm so much bigger than the other arm too?
It might still be, this arm might be a little bigger,
I don't know.
Tiny bit.
A tiny bit.
Back then it was.
But was it considerable before?
But not like a Federer,
cause I had a two handed backhand.
But I started hitting again with some other former players
and it would be very like just hitting,
just chilling, no competition.
It was like a, you had to desensitize yourself to it.
You put your foot in and be like, ooh.
And it's funny because now I'm really into it again
and I'm trying to re-coach myself
where I'm actually working on my forehand right now,
which used to give me a lot of issues.
And I'm like, okay, we've no pressure.
Let's actually try to like change some stuff
the way you wanna change it.
I think with tennis, what I didn't like,
I didn't know I didn't like at the time was,
I didn't like that there was rules.
I didn't like people telling me how I should hit the ball.
I didn't trust what they were telling me.
And then my body and mind wasn't in on it.
Where stand up, there's no rules.
Oh my God. No, no, hey, where stand up, there's no rules. There's no rules.
Oh my God.
No, no, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
I go on stage, do whatever the fuck I want,
and I couldn't do that with tennis.
You had to keep your ball in the lines.
Yeah, but the only way to get good at stand up
is to fail, right?
I can fail really well.
Yeah.
I can fucking fail.
But if you fail at tennis, you're fucking done.
Yeah, you're not playing next match.
You're done. You're match. You're done.
You're crying.
You're done.
You're crying.
So it's funny, there's so many similarities.
Bleeding, crying.
You're in a fetal position, crying for your mom.
Full adults, you've broken every racket.
So it's funny, there's similarities,
but then stark differences to the two
that I think I'm grateful. So even though I, there's similarities, but then stark differences to the two that I think I'm grateful.
So even though I'm young in comedy,
I'm kind of like, look, I've had this other career
that I've been through.
A full on career, yeah.
Yeah, and I do think with kids,
I don't know if I wanna give my kid
that much pressure at a young age.
Because it is fun though to be like, my kid's talented,
but you miss out on some of the like little joys
because it was always just like how do I get better?
How do I get better?
But that psychotic drive has been fun for me as a comic
to like see like oh I got better today.
Oh I figured that one out.
Yeah I figured that one out.
Yeah because I'm still the same person.
I just, there's like a stupid Instagram video of a girl
and it's like sometimes you're doing the wrong thing,
at soccer and she like kicks a soccer ball and whiffs it
and it's like embarrassing.
And she goes to the back of the line
and does like two backward cartwheels.
And it's like, you just are not doing
what you're supposed to do.
You could have been your daughter doing gymnastics.
Did I watch that stuff?
I'm so fascinated by gymnastics,
because the only gymnastics I've ever seen is Olympics.
Yeah.
Where it's like, wow.
Look at her.
How do you even know you could do that?
Yep, and now I'm watching how they learn how to do it,
and they'll just be like, you bend your leg,
straighten your leg and kick it, and it's mechanics.
It's literally just, there it goes.
And I'm over there going, look at that.
And she's chucking herself around the.
Yeah, now I turn around, she's on the coffee table, jumping, I'm like, going, look at that shit. And she's chucking herself around the. Yeah, miss, now I turn around,
she's on the coffee table jumping,
I'm like, what are you fucking,
I'm like, that shit can't take your weight.
It can't take your weight.
She's like, it can, I'm like, it can't,
it can't take your weight.
She's a fucking pretzel,
you're like, can you untie yourself at dinner?
I'm like, it's Ashley furniture, it's not good shit.
Trust me, you're going through it.
No, that, gymnastics is another one,
that's just you and your brain.
And these girls have to be so strong.
And then they go up there and they get judged.
They literally don't even try to pretend they're not judging.
They're like, we are your judges.
Yeah.
And it's scary.
It's scary, but I'm still working on
when I know people are watching.
It's like comedy where the comics are watching you.
It's like staying in your zone. And that's how I always people are watching. It's like comedy where the comics are watching you. It's like staying in your zone.
And that's how I always felt with Hennis.
Like I always felt watched and I couldn't just be free.
And comedy, I've gotten better at focusing
on just the moment.
Because you can't be overthinking
when you're on stage sometimes.
Your brain has to be quiet.
It doesn't matter if you're really in
like in the zone of stand up and you come in with this list of shit to say
and some shit goes down in that
audience.
That list of shit's out the fucking
window. You know what I mean?
You can't just be power through that
shit. This lady's having a heart
attack. This guy's choking or
someone's drunk and yelling at you.
You can't be like, everyone shut up
because I have to prepare a list
of shit I need to do. I think that's how it do. It is so funny when sometimes comics get mad at the
crowd because they're like trying to work on something. I'm like, don't fight the waves,
bro. Don't fight the ocean. Just go with it. You're in a fucking kayak and you're going down.
Thank you for doing this. This has been awesome. It's a great episode. You're such a good listener.
You let me fucking go off, but it was very therapeutic for me at least.
That's nice of you to say thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Before I have you promote one more time, let me ask you, what I ask everyone their first time is advice you would give to 15-year-old, or excuse me, 16-year-old Hannah Berner.
What would you say to your 16 year old self? That you're not, you're not failing.
Like you're not failing.
You're not messing up.
Like you're living, you're, you're experimenting, you're researching.
And this is a girl who's crushing it at tennis right now too.
It's 16, right?
You're fucking good.
It's, it's, I would also like, if I was like a little able to tell the future, I'd just be like, you have no fucking clue what else you're fucking good. It's, I would also like, if I was like a little, able to tell the future, I'd just be like,
you have no fucking clue what else you're capable of.
And just like, trust that it's there
and you're gonna be okay.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Promote everything one more time, please.
Oh yeah, go to Netflix right now.
We ride at dawn.
If you wanna giggle a little bit
and check out my pod burner phone or giggly squad.
Awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ryan.
As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media.
Come see me on tour.
Tickets are up on my website for all shows at Ryan sickler dot com.
We'll talk to you all next week. Music