Whiskey Ginger with Andrew Santino - Ryan Sickler Talks Comedy, Family & Real Life | Whiskey Ginger

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Welcome to Whiskey Ginger — a Wave series. Andrew Santino sits down with comedian, podcaster, and storyteller Ryan Sickler for a hilarious and honest conversation about comedy, family, growing up, and turning real life into unforgettable stand-up. They talk about Sickler’s brand-new stand-up special Live & Alive, the stories behind the hour, life on the road, and why vulnerability is still one of the most powerful tools in comedy. 🎥 Watch Ryan Sickler’s new special Live & Alive (out now on YouTube):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMGWVyM2NJo 🎧 Check out Ryan’s podcast “The HoneyDew”🎤 See Ryan Sickler live: https://www.ryansickler.com In this episode:• The making of Live & Alive and how the hour came together• Turning pain and chaos into laughs without losing honesty• Santino and Sickler swap stories, family moments, and comedy lessons Drop a comment with your favorite moment from Live & Alive. #WhiskeyGinger #AndrewSantino #RyanSickler #LiveAndAlive #ComedyPodcast #StandUpComedy #PodcastClips #Comedians Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Whiskey Ginger, a Wave series, and welcome to the new year. 2026 is here. Hope it's a good year. We'll find out. I'm on the road. I'm jumping around a little bit. You guys got to come see me. Windsor, Ontario, Canada, January 16th, and 17th. I'm in Bethlehem, PA. The 23rd, I'm in Hanover, Maryland. Come on out, Baltimore. Then I go down to the Borgata, Atlantic City, New Jersey, dirty Jersey. Then Valley Center, which is basically San Diego, January 30th, at the end of the month. Lovers Day, Valentine's Day. I'm up in Canyonville, Oregon. Bad friends. We're doing one show for fun to start the year in March. We're doing Lincoln, California, which is basically

Sacramento. Then I'm in Las Vegas at the win, March 21st, and then at Little Roadie Fest out there in Providence, Rhode Island, in March, 27th, end of March. I'll be bouncing some new dates in and out, and we'll see. I'm going to keep traveling around. I can't wait to come see you. I love you. Thank you for being around. Enough rambling from me. Let's go to the episode. In here, we pour whisks, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk. You were that creature in the ginger beard.

Sturdy and ginger. Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse. Ginger's a fugitive. You only $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Ginger's, oh, hell no. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger. I like gingers.

Let it jump. Welcome back to Whiskey Ginger. My guest said is one of my favorite people. People on Earth, they say that for all my guess, but I mean once again today. It is the return of my dog. Ryan Sickler! Man, you have- I've said this every time.

You have such a, you have a jersey name. Ryan Sickler feels Jersey? Sickler. Sickler's a phenomenal jersey name. Well, you're, are you joking about that or do you know about it? No, what do you mean? Okay, so in, it's a great jersey name. I've had this sent to me a ton of times.

There's a Sicklerville, New Jersey. You don't, are you fogging with me? No, no, I'm saying for the back of a jersey. Oh! I thought you said, talking about New Jersey. No, dude. But there just happens to me. A Sicklerville, a sickler pond, a sickler bike shop, people snapshot it to me all the time.

No, dude. I mean, sickler is a great jersey name. Like, some people have great jersey names. And, like, I remember in high school, you'd see guys had perfect. You were like, they should have gone pro. The name was better than the athlete. But Sickler is a good jersey name. like corkery not as good no not as good how do you spell that

C-O-R-K-E-R-Y C-O-R-K-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-S. Santino good jersey name that's a good jersey name we could go through some of our friends who has probably the best jersey name of everyone anyone that we know it's a good question Lee's not a good one no no no no Bobby Lee is not good Lee is not good um I mean maybe on a pitching staff of the Dodgers now it's all Asian dudes dude it's amazing It's a great

He's coming out of a bullpen. Dude, I would love it that every bullpen is all Asian now. That's what I'm looking for it, dude. I mean, we're working on it. A good one. Well, Chrysher's a terrible. Like, Chrysler's not a great jersey.

Segura's okay. It's all right. I'm just trying to figure out who's got that strong one. Yeah, who has the toughest one? Swartson's a solid one. Swartson's a good one. Yeah, Swarton's a good.

No, Sickler's got a tight jersey in it. I asked you before the show, who is this dog? Hong Kong Fuie right here. You don't remember him? I'm 52. How old are you? 42.

All right, so I got 10. God damn. You look younger than me. I appreciate it. I'm so burnt out. I don't. Wait, but Hong Kong Fuie was... That's what happens, making all that money, dude.

Look at me. See the difference too you making money and not making money? Look at it. You look younger than me, bro. Hong Kong Fuie was what? A cartoon from one? He was a cartoon. I would have to say probably the late 70s.

I would see it as a kid. He drove a little Kung Fu Mobile. And I think it was... What's his name? Scat. or Catman's Crothers. I don't know, is they? Scatman Crothers?

Scatman Crothers. Scatman Crothers would do the voice. And he had a little cat. Are you looking it up over there? Oh, yeah. It's 1974. It's a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Ah, Han-Barbara, for sure.

Well, it looks like it's got the Hanna-Barbara drone. Yeah, it looks like it. And he was a crime-fighting hero. He turned into Hong Kong food. He had a little cat sidekick. What's the cat's name? A little purple and pink guy, I think it was. Like almost looked a little like Alice in Wonderlandish.

Was it? Rosemary? Rosemary? What is it? no rosemary spot sergeant flint i don't know he was to roll around a little cat just say hong kong fuey's sidekick no this is all the characters just but type in hong kong fuey's sidekick cat but what did you love this as a kid this was like your favorite shit he was one of these characters i'd be seeing the smurfs all the time and the g. i joes and the bugs bunnies and shit

and then hannah barbarras would come on and i liked underdog and i liked all those that would be in there And every now and then you'd see all these characters. And this dude would roll on. And he was just so different. And he just had such a vibe. And he's, you know, you got Crothers doing his voice, the guy from the Shining, you know. That rich, old school black man voice. It was just different.

Perfect. I really feel like. It hits you in a way. I feel like I have the soul of a big older black lady. And I was good at it. I think in another life I was a big black woman. Like you used to work at the post office. Or wherever.

But I think I was good. I threw out a lot of, hey, babies. A lot of those. And I was good at it. Come here, baby. Come here, baby. Yeah. How's your mama?

A lot of those, you know. Get out the street. Y'all need to get up out the street. Yep. Just because I ain't your mom, don't mean I won't beat your ass. We all look after one another. One of those in the neighborhood, you know. Yeah.

I think I was one of those ladies back in the day. My little sister, her babysitter, Christine, nanny Christine, was a big, older black woman. And, man, was I such a fucking little brat. when I was around her, too. She couldn't stand my little ass. Ever? Andrew, you better cut, you better cut that shit out.

Dude, I was always up to no good. Every child should be raised. Right there it is. That would straighten a lot of this world out, especially white kids. Yeah. Every white kid needs... Every privileged white kids should be raised by an older black lady

that doesn't take shit from anybody. Get to a point where you just give them a look and they settle down. Like, all right, it's time for me to go now. I got to move. on to another band like she yeah she was she was great dude she did she hated my shit well i was always up to no good because my sister and i are almost a decade apart so i was you know what i mean like when she was she's older or you are i'm older so when she was raising she was helping babysit her you know i was just a little run around punk i was nine years

old i was causing chaos like you know what i mean i was getting into bullshit that's when you really i think seven is where you start to start to get a little mischievous eight and nine's where you become a little motherfucker. Yeah. That you become a little asshole. Like you're, you are begging for trouble, trying to do something stupid,

stealing stuff. Oh. Cause havoc. I talk about shit. Like, we'd be playing Nintendo. And it would be like me and my other brother or a friend from the neighborhood's over.

And then out of nowhere, a flame just shoots across our face. Like, what the fuck? And my brother's just hitting Lysol with the, just while we're playing, though. You know what I mean?

And that's the kind of shit you got to look out for. Yeah, exactly that. And, you're like, what the fuck? man and he's just over to hat right across both our faces and shit like that and you can't believe when something gets lit on fire you're like who didn't even know dad i had no idea it the couch was that flammable yeah we're non-stop that kind of shit around our house you're begging for trouble three boys so two of us are twins same age so we're going at it my younger brother's

just about four years younger so it's hell yeah well you're whooping his ass on the younger we're both no we never we weren't allowed to beat his ass but what we did was scared the fuck out of them. We would go outside the house and he'd come around to corner and like, ha! And my dad, you'd make me laugh because my dad, I'd be like, stop doing that. You're going to give him brain damage. That's what he would say. That was what he would

try to say. And then we were like, oh, we're definitely about to make this motherfucker. As soon as you learn that that's how you get brain damage, you're like, brother. We can scare him retarded? Oh, we're about to do that. This kid is done. This kid is cooked, buddy. Get your helmet, pal. We're not going to be like, oh,

man, we shouldn't do that. Both of us are I'm like, we're doubling down. We're doubling down as hard as we can. This motherfucker's going to have a helmet by the end of the school year, bro. You didn't get, well, you got a daughter. You got a daughter, so that's God calming you down a little bit. And I wanted that. Listen, I, I...

A son would have been a nightmare. I prayed for that. Yeah. More testosterone and more of the same. No, my cousins were all boys. Like, I had two girl cousins. Yeah. And I really did want a daughter.

But she, like you, so she shares a mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With her brother. So her brother's 11 years old. Yeah, this is you guys. Same split. Yeah. And he's a good older brother. So she's 11. He's 22 now. So, I remember these years, by the way. She gets a little bit of that over there. And she gets me too. And I'm still, you know, I treat her like an older brother sometimes. It's still running around on the shoulders. And like, she's in her room laying on her bed, watching her tablet. I don't say anything. I sneak in. I just pounce on top of her. And I roll her up in the crater. I'm like, this is a cradle. I put my knee in her. and her ribs and I put her head on her temple

I'm like I feel this pressure this is what they do and I go you can imagine how that would hurt if I drove she's like stop dad I'm like all right you gotta keep run her toes I think you want some Doritos or something

she's 11 she's 11 big time is it scary a little bit because you see her kind of getting like the teen is coming and that's you know then she becomes her own little woman that's kind of a trip

the pre teen these days I feel like is the teen yeah well probably yeah I'm getting a lot of eye roles and attitudes no no no talking back though um yeah really yeah not talking back like you know i hate you or any of that kind of nonsense yeah but it's like i did i said i would i'm getting some of that shit like you got to understand that i grew up with a brother who talked to me like that and a mom who talked to me like that we're not going to do that we're not going to do that here so i

calm down you know and i never put hands on i never believe you can't you're not that guy well no and you also as a father to a daughter like i'm the first man she loves i'm going to set the example that it's okay for a man to put hands on you no no that's a pretty great so if anyone ever does you'd be like oh no i know that doesn't happen right so she knows the deal she knows what's up she's got an older brother like you who can teach her what high school boys are like and then the two of us can team up when they come over you know what i mean it is funny that that that was like a When my sister started dating, now she's engaged to a guy I really like, so it worked out. I got lucky.

Because when she started dating. All about us. Well, it is. Not the fact that your sister did. And the child's going to have a good dad. It's like, ooh, I lucked out. I got lucky. Woo.

I did. It's me. Well, because as an older brother, they, she, you know, when she started dating, your, your antennas are way up. You're like, who's this guy? What's his thing? And she had a couple that were, you know, she would agree. Not my favorite. did not enjoy their presence, but I was swallowing it, like, okay, whatever.

That's okay if that's what you like. But, you know, you get guarded, you get protected, and it's hard to not be a little bit of a dick to your sister's boyfriend. It's almost impossible. I mean, it really, it's almost impossible. Because you just have, you have. It's also a bit of a right of pass. You have to.

Yeah, you have to fuck with him a little bit. If he can't get through that, he's in deep shit. That's the thing, because it's me next. Right. If your brother scares him off, Wait till I get him. You know what I mean? What's he going to do that?

Yeah, no shit. But also I told my, I called my stepson. I told him when we were pregnant, we didn't know what we were having. I was like, listen, if it's a boy, I'm telling you, if he's driving me nuts and he's old enough, I'm not going to say a word. I'm just going to look at you and give you a nod. And I said, you can go, fuck him. And then at some point I'll step in. I'll be like, that's enough.

And I'll hit you with a wink and we do it. You know how disappointed he was when he found out we were having a girl. He's like, damn. I said, that's okay. That was one you got the fuck with. Now, you get the fuck with every boyfriend that comes over. That's even easier. Yeah, that's more fun.

It's better. It's more. I was like, we'll do it. We'll do it. But I have a relationship with my daughter where I'm surprised. She tells me about her crushes. Oh, she does. Oh, my God.

I won't say who it is. This is so funny. So she tells me about her crushes, the one she has crushes on. And then there are boys that have crushes on her. Oh, okay. Well, she's got it all. She has a cell phone? she does have a cell phone cell phones at 11 is wild on so my daughter's mother and I agreed that we would not do a cell phone to at least sixth grade because she's close enough to the middle school that she'll walk right it's a couple blocks but god forbid anything happens or whatever that's safety I want you to have a phone I can also track your location correct these days that helps she's in fifth grade now so I think it was fourth grade last year

You're trying to remember when my daughter's mother's boyfriend gave her the gift. He gave her the phone. Oh, he did. Oh, that's an interesting move. Now, did we have a conversation about that first? Yeah, sixth grade is when that phone comes in. Hadn't considered someone else's person going here. So what he did, I don't want to get too into the story, was I guess they were splitting.

and he was trying to like try to throw a grenade back like I want to be you know oh look at this let's make it work so he gave my daughter a used

wasn't an iPhone I think it was an it's an iPod it's the newer ones these days whenever they're iPhones now they just don't make cell calls I can FaceTime or on it right that's what I mean right

just can't make cellular phone calls there's no internet she has to get on the internet herself right yes there's no cellular calls. But it's basically an iPhone. It's, come on. Yeah.

Come on. It's the same shit, because you can text and everything. Now. Let me take a sip of water. If I had a girlfriend who did that to my daughter, you think I'm going to hear about it a little bit? I think I am. I think I am. Just a little bit.

So then that becomes a thing. You're like, okay, this is what co-parenting is. You know what I mean? You got to, I can consider somebody else. else fucking up to plan with an iPhone or whatever. So now it's a whole thing. Like there is no TikTok. There's no fucking...

None of the apps are on the thing. None. I mean, there's no... There is one. And if there's parents out there, we use this one, it's called Cover Star. Cover Star? Have you ever heard of it?

No. It's basically TikTok light. They monitor. So you can't even put... Hell, yeah. No language. Cover Star. And there's no DMing.

That's the thing. I had Chris Hansen on The Honeydue, and he talked to me about, he has a whole documentary coming out about Roblox itself, where, you know, when a new app comes out, normal people like that. Positive social media. Positive social media. That's what it says. And, you know, we're trying to figure out how to use the app to our advantage. But before we're there, these sickos are already figuring out how to use it for the, you know what I mean? So anything with a DM, he recommends you don't let your kids on. If there's a way. a stranger could direct message, don't even let it. This one. But does their comments? Can they comment? You can comment, but nothing negative. They have filters for. Oh, that's great. That's even better. So I'm saying it's a, and it's a,

you can't say hell yeah. You know, you can't even use that word. Right. That's great. Yeah. I think fucking Instagram should do the same thing. It's like that, yeah. There should be, yeah. So that's tough. Carve out all that bullshit. But yeah. Does she want the other stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Because her friends

have all going to want it. There will be a generation. Maybe it's her kids. or her grandkids that push back and say fuck social media like there will come a time it's gotta be right after her I think it's where it shifts and it may not be an end to social media

but end the way we do it now with everything out there no I think an end of social media good luck running in politics anymore they can go back to your fucking Facebook when you're in 10th grade get all the dumb shit you did or said you know what I mean yeah that's all it is anymore

nobody is about policy or anything anymore it's hey Andrew Santino is shit and here's why. Right, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, the lineup, every tweet you ever tweeted, every dumb response you ever had. Yeah, social media is a fucking toxic nightmare.

But these girls, man, the crush is so early, it's like... 11. Well, when did you have your first crush? Do you remember? Let me tell you this is funny, right? I will tell. I do remember. So my buddy's daughter, my daughter and his daughter are like best friends. And we've known each other since ninth grade. He happens to live out here in Temecula, works for GE. Good life.

And we're buddies. So we'll go down there sometimes. Staycation, they come up. When the fires hit, we went down there and got the fuck out because we were on the evacuation lines. We stayed down there. While we're down there for the fires, his daughter has these posters of boys on our wall.

Like boy bands? Nope. They're guys from outer banks. the show is called. You shouldn't know. If you were like, yeah, Sinclair, oh, I would be it. Bro, how do you know?

I'm like, who, Bryce and Danny? It's a Netflix show? Because I've never heard of Outer Banks until this either. Is it a reality show or a scripted show? That's a great question. I still don't know. It's kind of like a modern like Dawson's Creek. Oh, it's descriptive show.

It's their Dawson's. Okay, I get it. Yeah. And it's got the hard drops. By the way, Outer Banks, I almost saw already that it's like, country boys, Lake Living. I think it's like a mystery, too. That's a murder mystery, I bet.

These things are, by the way, when you hear these things and you go, should have wrote that, should have fucking sold that, said some dumb fart we're in the mouth comedy that we're trying to do. You sell that, you become a billionaire. You sit back and go, oh, yeah, do teenage drama. I sold a holiday movie. They play it every year. That's a good business move.

I didn't think of that. I know a guy that does exactly that. Mariah Carey. Yeah, I know a guy that does Hallmark, writes Hallmark films. phenomenal money by that it's like go do that she's got these posters of the outer banks boys

heart throbs and my daughter's tight with me my daughter comes out to me after and goes you know what Donna does with those posters I go what she goes she kisses them good night every night so I

I go she's kissing the boys good night and here's the other thing about these two they're not I would have been embarrassed as a kid remarkably I said hey little lady

are you kissing these posters was a good night? She goes, mm-hmm. Like, no shape. Doesn't care. Would she tell her own parents, or just because it's you? I think, I told her dad. I was like, do you know your daughter's kissing these posters at night? And he just laughs. He doesn't say that he just laughs. He doesn't say that he just laughs. I don't

what's going on. 11, kissing the posters. So now my daughter has, you know, she knows who that guy is. Now she's tuned into the show? Yeah. Well, she doesn't watch it, but she knows who they are. Right. Do you let her watch anything on Netflix? Do you

Do you let her watch anything streaming or no? You know what's awesome about my... Yes. My daughter has gone on to Netflix and she's found old school shows like Sister Sister. What? Yeah.

My daughter watches old school sitcoms. And I'm like, where are you... What's this on? She's like, this one's on Netflix. I'm like, how do you even know Sister, Sister? She knows that. Maybe it was the... The...

Full House... Reboot. Maybe it was that that sort of... So if you like that, maybe you'll like these. It could have been something like that. But she likes all that stuff, and she sits and watches it. Wow. It's fucking wild.

All right, tell me about your first crush, if you remember it. I want to skip back to it. Okay, I will. Because I can tell you, I remember vividly. I remember the first time I felt the feeling. Mm-hmm. I very, very much so. First grade?

First grade? Yeah. God damn. I won't say her last name, but her first name was Brandy. And she was a dark-haired, blue-eyed. cute little girl in my first grade class and we were buds and somehow I convinced my mom and dad and she convinced her mom and dad to let her come over and play with me in the first grade and we got caught upstairs in my room under a blanket kissing and when I say kissing I'm just

I don't even know about a time yeah you're probably hitting each other in the face you probably don't we were just straight up headbutting each other and my mom called us and I was just like fucking this girl's and I was sprung bro she's handwriting me letters back man come on first grade nothing yeah wow

and then I'd have a girl she was like first to second and then I got a new girl in third um named Jen Jennifer and then I think that was till about fourth and then fifth I think I just flew solo into fifth grade

you were a bachelor going into fifth sixth grade I stepped my game up, met a girl, and this girl was the one who just, I mean, blew my brains wide. Like, I was like, sixth grade. What? Yeah, six grade. Yeah, because I remember in sixth grade, there was a couple of girls in the class that finally had boobs. And I was like, what?

What happened last summer? Sixth grade was like the revolution. Yeah, I remember being like, have you seen Natalie's boobs? I'm also worried about that for these younger girls. girls too like those girls that have you know adult boobs in eighth grade well that's because of the fucking everything they're eating but you know these scumbag dudes are

just hawk out oh yeah yeah oh yeah hawk yeah so one thing my daughter's mom is good about is she is very good about the message we have been good about is dudes or scumbags you're not wearing crop tops you're not doing anything wrong

you look super cute in that but the message you're putting out there to these scumbag men I'm like, that's, that's a message we're on. I'm like, text her that shit on her iPhone. So, anyway. Sixth grade, we're in Police Academy. We're seeing, that's, that's what a girlfriend was.

Drop you off at the movies. You meet there. It's a police academy. Good day, great movie. Back then, there were two movies at the theater. Yeah. Not 46. No, there was two.

And they lasted for months. You're like, that thing's still up there? God damn. And then it would be at the, it would be on the undercard when they put up a, new movie and it'd be there for like one more one more week or so and then they'd get rid of there out of nowhere she leans over and she kisses me and she shoves her tongue in my mouth in the theater in the middle of the movie in the middle of the fucking movie theater and let me tell you something andrew santino it was as if that woman plugged me in okay I hear about

muddy waters taking the blues from the delta to Chicago and plugging them in this fucking girl plugged me in. I woke up that fucking day, night. That night. And I started going do it again, do it again, do it again. What I didn't know

is there were two girls from our class right behind us who heard me. And then when we were outside the movie, this is also part of the filter I started building early too. They were like, do it again, do it again, making fun of me. And let me tell you something. I didn't give a fuck. I didn't give a...

Oh, fuck. Did not embarrass at all. Not one time. Good. But make fun of me all. Do you know what just happened in there? Like, it blew me away that that was even a thing. Right.

That that, you'd even do that. I couldn't get over it. And then going back to like elementary school, because, again, I'm older. There was nothing like a girl passing you a note in class. Or Andrew passes to Ryan. Yeah. You know, and then you're the guy in between Andrew. And then you go,

What did she say? What does it say? Just tell me to check yes or no. I remember loving getting a phone call from a girl about her girlfriend. Who's there? Who likes you? Yeah. She likes you.

Do you want to talk to her? They make someone else call for you? Man, those days were fantastic. The excitement, the buildup, the anxiety. All of it. Now, here's the thing about my twin brother. We look nothing alike. We're fraternal twins.

He's tall and skinny. I'm the rugged one with the good looks and the sense. sense of humor, but we sound really similar. You got the same voice. And even to this, I'm 52, as I've said here, I will say something sometimes and I'll hear it, him. In my head, I'm like,

ugh, ugh. I can hear it exactly. So when we were kids, our aunts, they couldn't tell us a part when we answered the phone. Hey, Ryan, it's Derek, hey Derek, it's Ryan. So there will be times that if a girl called and liked me and I didn't want to, he'd fucking get the phone.

I'm out there, like I said, play Nintendo, this motherfucker fuckers in the back in the bedroom setting up a date with me for me hey you're going out with so and so i'm like what he's like i just set up a date with you i'm like what are you talking about and it just sounds like me so they would fucking and he's still in baltimore he's in delaware in delaware and do you are you and your brother tight yeah my brother's we're all tight other side of the world but still yeah one brother maryland one in delaware and i'm still tight with, like, the shit that went down for us with, you know, my mom splitting early and then my dad dying, we were the kids in your high school that had no parents. So we had

a ton of kids at our house, Monday to Sunday. And I'm still friends with at least 10 to 12 of those guys from, from sixth grade on, yeah. Did you have like an older guy, a couple classes older that was kind of like your father figure? No. We had no George Michael, no. No George Michael. Well, that's what happens. A lot of times guys get lashed on, especially in sports. There was a lot of guys that I knew that if they didn't have dads or brothers and they would latch on to like the older, the senior guy, you know, as like his father figure.

I think maybe that would have happened, but the fact that there were two of us. Yeah, I guess that's, yeah, you got to support this. And not to brag or anything like that. We played every sport. We were very popular in high school, especially because guess where we're going tonight, the Sickler's house. The Sickler Brothers House Every fucking day

But we were so into sports That we If you missed If you missed class or anything You couldn't practice And if you couldn't practice You couldn't play And we loved sports

So we were We were all Football players spent the night Soccer everybody We made sure everybody's got their ass up We made sure everybody was At school on time It's weird

It was the late 80s We're talking 89 9091 These three years I'm still friends with these people's They come and see me on tour These people's parents I love that

What the fuck were you guys thinking Ever letting your kids spend the night In high school You know but they knew what had happened People were they were friends with my dad You know and they're like Go over and and the rule was this If your grades suffer

If you start fucking up It's done And I'm telling you dude I graduated with a 3.0 We never fucked up Yeah because you knew better We never fucked up You're a 3.0?

Well, look, that's not bragging. I was in the shade. I was below the B. I was right in the C shade. Without parents, that's a 4.0. Yeah, that's his. Or the curve. I got eight.

But there was one night, I tell this story, this makes me laugh. We all would be there together, and you couldn't fuck up. We got the baseball guys. We're all wrestling, all of them. And my buddy Chris Schiller, and he had a stutter when he got nervous. And the way he would stutter wasn't, like, he wouldn't hit a letter like, he would hold it. He'd be like,

what are we going to do, man? I got a mobile do tomorrow for science class. We're like, what are you talking about right now? This motherfucker had a solar system mobile do for his science project. It's Thursday night. It's due tomorrow, Friday.

He's at weeks to do it. We got tiny little TV in this corner with the Nintendo. I mean, the tiny little TV over here, it's Thursday night. It's cheers, night court. It's that night. Yeah. Over here on the big TVs, the Nintendo, we're all playing Little League baseball or whatever.

Closest store is Kmart up the street. It's about to close. And Kmart back then had a little arts and craft section. So three of us, me, my younger brother and Sheila, we roll up to Kmart and we get all the ingredients and shit we need to make this solar system mobile, the Jupiter, you know what I mean? The big styrofoam balls are just white balls. And we go home, and there's so many people that are like, you got Jupiter. You got Saturn. You got Pluto.

And everybody's helping everybody do their project. This motherfucker went to school the next day. Got an A on that mobile. And we're all doing it at the house that night. So there were never no drinking and driving arrests or crashes or problems. No overdoses. No nothing. Cops came plenty of times, but they never took anyone.

It was more the threat of your neighbors are calling. You got all underage drinking going on. It's clear the shit up. But underage drinking, who could? But they're just kids having fun. Not hurting anybody. And eventually they figure out who we are. Because we had a buddy whose uncle was a state trooper.

And he's like, look, those guys have no parents. Like, go by and check on them. Right. You know what I mean? See if everything's good. If something bad, yes, but they're all right. And p. S, my nephew's over there, too.

Yeah, yeah. I got a kid over there. So me and I had a couple of them. His name was Barry. I love them. I go down to my buddy Chris's house and it was his cousin, Barry. And he had the state trooper car and he parked on the yard. I was like, oh, Barry's he.

here. There's only one state trooper car parked on the yard. Barries. We had these dump houses. We had these places where we could go and like everyone could just crash out. It is kind of beautiful. My buddy Tommy, who's no longer with us anymore. All right. I know. He was the best. Tom. God, that motherfucker was the most fun. But he was mischievous. He was always like, he'd be like, do you want to come to the house and do gravity bungs at lunch? And I'd be like, dude, come on. We wouldn't leave for lunch. Oh, we did. We were troublemakers, dude I used to go get ripped at lunch

Well, here's why We would organize it so post-lunch You'd have either like study hall Gym or you'd have a gap after lunch So you'd have some time to recover To get back for the last two classes of the day Or whatever it was But yeah, we used to go to Tom's house

Because we could get there quick enough from school And get... We were right by school Fucking ripped Yeah, he lived near school I lived nowhere near my high school Oh, I was probably I was probably 8 to 10 miles away from my school

I was nowhere near my high school because I wasn't even supposed to go to that I mean technically my neighborhood should go to the one that's way closer but this was a better school so my mom was like you're going there You would have definitely been at our house You would have definitely been hanging there every week Oh I would have loved it

You'd have been one of the dudes when we come home one time Everybody's in our house already Oh yeah they're there without you Who the fuck let you in? Oh Derek did you in I could did he? Hey Derek Derek comes up that's my brother Yeah Who let you in? Derek's right here he's with me

Todd. Oh, hold on. Todd. I said, we just got back from our grandmas. We climbed up on the roof and went through the window. Twelve people in there for hours. You didn't leave the doors unlocked, though. No, but they knew how to get in. See, I knew. That was a lot of these kids. You had to get a door. He had to climb up to the roof, popped the window, and then he could go in.

My buddy, Tyler, they always had. The garage door was always unlocked. So if you could get to the side back door, it was never locked. There was no parents there. That's the other thing. You didn't risk anybody. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. What the fuck you kids do? Dude, we would do shit. this one we'd have the winter parties we'd make you we'd take your jacket you just put your

jacket in that room over there and if you were a dick you didn't get your jacket and most likely if you if you've touched a girl or fucked with a girl you got your ass beat by so many dudes and then we take your shoes your shoes and your jacket you go home with that and we're seeing you p.s these ain't strangers we're seeing you at school on monday motherfucker and i might wear your shoes you got a size 10 the other thing people would do this one was a good one too and they're doing it at our house

we didn't even know about it there was a ski place in Pennsylvania called ski liberty okay it was a shit it was sheets of ice okay just sheets of ice

but we'd go for like 12 bucks a little mini bunny hill yeah we come back one night and there's fucking skis like look brand new

popped up on the wall two of them I go would y'all bring your skis back like, no, John, John stole him. I'm like, what? He's like, mm-hmm. And we're going to raffle them off tonight.

And I said, oh, it's a great idea. That's a great idea. So we would take $20 raffle tickets for some gently used brand-new skis. And we'd raffle off and make a few hundred dollars off these stolen skis. I was like, how's it going, guys, that's a go. Did you do it again? Did they do it again or not? Oh, we did it like three or four times.

They would just steal skis. People go into the damn lodge. They would, they'd look for a good pair. too like these look pretty nice they take them go back and then we'd raffle them off by the end the night be 30 or 40 people you guys are why it's so hard to know rent skis when you go somewhere they make you sign fucking 50 things they take pictures of your license yeah it's because of you guys we were renting them i mean no that's what i mean though that's why they were stealing yeah they were stealing them that yeah that person was going to rent them later that day

i just got asked that yesterday too we're going out to park city for christmas and someone was like are you going to go skiing and i haven't been skiing since i got hurt and I've been skiing in it's been six years five years now this will be the sixth season and I miss it so much it is one of my favorite things but good Christ man when you get older my body I don't even know if I can do it I know that sounds terrible but I don't even know if I want to because I'm afraid of getting hurt hurts that's the problem it's not though you can't do it it's I just want to want to get hurt fall yeah how old school fall was a bruise on my hip now it's a whole shattered hip and every ligament is torn and somehow my my elbow went with

it too and you hear the stories from you know you hear the stories from the older generation and you're like what do you mean what do you mean he's got a fucking slip disc and he just fell on the hill you know how people want to ride motorcycles but they're scared to ride the two so they get that trike that's oh yeah yeah there should be something like that for skiing i totally agree like not a snowmobile but give me something else that lets me get down that fuck well they have they have one that you sit on that has three skis that it's just they have something like that They do? Yeah.

Why am I not on that? I don't know about that. I don't know. I don't know how bad you want to take that up the mountain. I don't give a fun. Here's my point. All I want to do is have fun going down the mountain. I don't want to do it necessarily the way you say I got to do it.

Right. That's true. I just want to get down that mountain. I think it's harder to get that bike up there, though. You've got to hold that shit on the lift. That's going to be fucking. That's going to be tough. His legs.

His legs. I can't. I can't, man. I can't. I can't. I can't. Look up ski bikes. And then it stops, you're like, fuck!

One second, folks, one second. I always had panic of that, too. I was such a pussy. I was so scared about getting stuck. Show him the ski bike. Oh, God, damn. Show them what it looks like. Yeah, that's it right there.

Oh, yeah, I've seen that. All right, no, we ain't taking that. Yeah, well, see what I'm saying? No, I mean, you've got to come up with something else. Like, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a chair. Maybe it's, like, things in a chair, and I can just sit. Well, have you seen the, I don't even know what they're called, but they're, like,

they're literally called mini-s, they're like mini-skiy. I've seen the smaller skis. And they're just like the size of your shoes. That's what I feel like. Because you can't, you won't be able to go that fast. That's what I, look. That I could do. I was never good on two sticks and two different legs.

I was better snowboarding. Me, that's all I ever did, yeah. Yeah, those are great. Snowblades. So here's the thing. You can't get that much because of this lack of, I mean, you can go fast, but certainly not as fast you can on longer skis. I don't need to go 80 miles. That's the other thing is.

That's what I'm saying. I don't either. I don't want those then. on the shorter than the long rain with that clunky I fucking hate that but the the shorter ones yeah I'm that I think I could do but I I snowboarded because I couldn't I learned skiing once when I was young and then in high school I learned how to snowboard because I had a couple friends that were very good and then I just stuck with it and I like that more rhythm wise it felt more normal than skis yeah also coming from just skateboarding as a kid it was more natural

to me to be on something like that yeah same yeah but but those those I could do because you can't get that fast and the fall looks like it would hurt less because you don't have fucking poles and skis and you're not you're not crisscrossing and it's jagging your fucking skis in the air and you're laying there and you're like what we're talking about we're stealing

these motherfuckers and we're going back to my house before we forget before we keep going too far please everyone right now watch Sickler special it's available on his YouTube channel right now please go watch it we'll put the link in the description down below. Where'd you shoot this one?

Comedy on State. Madison, Wisconsin. One of the best clubs in the absolute country. No doubt. And I say one of the best, but it's sneakily probably the best. They might be number one.

I don't know. They keep their good contender. They're absolutely in the running for it. And that family is the best. Yeah, they're great. Everyone there was great. The crew, the whole staff, like the shows were sold out.

Like, it was awesome. You know what makes that place so good? They put the comics first. They make the comics and the comedy a priority. And I'm not saying before people, I'm saying, they put them first in their mind as an entertainment value. So they go, this is what we do. It's for comedians to do comedy, right?

And then the other stuff fills in. Instead of, we're running a business and then also we have comedy here. What's your name again? Brian? We're going to be selling chicken figures tonight, too, for one. So if you could run five, ten minutes longer, we get those checks out. Thank you.

But isn't that the funniest part to think about is like, yes I get that it's a business we're not stupid but if you put the comics and the comedy first the business is going to be there it will support the thing that you wanted to make great in the first place it just is so funny such a clear example of like

when you do the other way and we've seen it a million times at some of these spots it's just a shitty experience for the audience for the staff for the comedians it just sucks but when you put the other way when you make it staff friendly and heavy you know that are

super supportive of the system that are kind of like drinking the Kool-A that are in on this as a team thing and it's in it's about a great comedy show and making a great night for the audience then the business obviously thrives i mean it's just it's easy math i don't know why more people didn't follow this they obviously did a system they should sell a fucking book on how to make a club that has all the right elements to it because a lot of times you go on the road you go to places you're like or everyone should go to comedy on state or comedy works yeah be trained on how to that's what i'm saying they should sell classes on how to fucking do it, on how to, like, organize it.

If you've been in these businesses and establishment, as we have, and all of us, it's, all of us say the same thing. These are the top clubs. Yeah, I know. And we say it for a reason. Yeah. And then nobody follows suit. I know.

It is what it is. I just was up in San Francisco, and I loved that, too. I had a fun time up there. I did punch, and I haven't, I have never really, I hadn't settled into a weekend at Punch, I don't think. I think I'd only done cobs and whatever, but it was lovely, man. I had a wonderful time up there, too. But comedy, I'd say, great place to shoot this special, man. Great.

It's phenomenal. Everyone there is great. Jesse, the whole crew there was awesome. How many is this for you? How many specials have you put out? It's only two. Really? I may have done albums, you know, before.

I miss albums. I miss how cool comedy albums were. I agree. I don't know if anybody gives a shit about them anymore. You know what, they do, but it's like guys are age. I shouldn't say guys. people are age. There are more audio files. I see that in my audio downloads for the podcast. I'm like, oh, so many of you still listen. I think they prefer listening. The younger generation likes to watch. Watch, yeah, the YouTube, but there's so many people still audio. I still go back and listen to old Richard Pryor. Do you? I close the, I shut all the lights off in my place. I light up joints and I listen to, I mean, my favorite is Richard Pryor Live in concert. Like, that's the, Well, you can't say some of the other albums, so that's probably a big part of it.

A couple of them you can't. But, man, to hear the coughs in the crowd and a fork hit, a play. Like, I like that shit. Yeah, what do you mean? It's great. You know, but I really, there's a part in the special where I had people laughing. And as it calms down, I start to hear all these coughs going around the room. And I was like, oh, these people are coughing because they were laughing so hard.

Now they're coughing. And I was like, leave it in. You might not hear it at all. I heard it. Yeah. Keep that shit in. That's cool. Keep that shit.

That is phenomenal. Yeah. Keep it in. Now, did you change anything about the stage at all? Or you left it how it was. You did it. No, the only thing we changed was they put a stage extender on it. So we had a little more room to move down front and light it a little more.

Sure. Instead of just staying back in that. Did you direct it? Or so who did you bring in somebody? Sam Violin directed this one. I did my last one like you did. Yeah. But this one I wanted to be 100% present and not even.

in my head at all worried about it. Are they getting this or they getting that? You do think about it when you're... You can't help it if you're... It's your job. If you say I'm going to direct something, then it's your job to also be thinking about that. I know.

That's your job. It's a burden that I don't think you need. And so I felt so much freer and... You know, honestly, doing this, I didn't even... During the whole time, I didn't even think we're shooting a special. I just was in the moment having fun with the fucking crowd. And then after it's like, did we get it?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you got it. We're good. What'd you do? How many shows? Just two. Saturday night.

This is why I love Madison as well. I had never been to comedy on State. I was there in November, what are we in now, 25? I was there in November of 2024 for my first time. Wow. And it was such a great experience. I had been looking for a place to do my special talking to some people. And Jesse's like, well, this is what we do.

And people been shooting here, blah, blah, blah. I was like, you guys will let me do it here? I didn't even think it was an option. They're like, yeah. I was like, oh, my God. So I don't know how long I need to wait to come back. but whatever. So we do it in May, I think I did it in May.

And next door at the big theater that night. It's a Saturday night. I've got two shows. They both sell out, and I find out Tom Papa's next door. And that week, Monday through Thursday, is Sam Meryl Stavros, Trevor Wallace. And I'm like, man, I can't believe I sold any fucking tickets. That was what was up against me this whole time. dude thank you

Madison Wisconsin showed up showed out sold out shows to the gills and they were fucking the best crowds I had a similar

fight by the way I went up against Shane Gillis in the fucking arena and Kevin Hart in the field house down the street so my fucking agents

I was like good job boys you fucking idiots Shane Shane played where the fucking Timberwolves play so tough tough

I was like holy shit dude I even said to Shane I go thank fucking God you're so famous that he sold that thing out in probably 10 minutes.

So I was like, great. Then the stragglers got to come to my show. I was like, good. The people that were slept on those tickets. And then Shane, Shane goes, well, no one from Kevin Hart's coming to yours. I was like, well, that's, yeah, okay, we're probably not sharing the same audience as Kevin Hart.

I go, probably Kevin Hart. I'm not stealing any of his crowd. But I go, Shane, thankfully selling out so hard, let some people come to our show. But I was, at first, I did fuck my head up. I'm not going to lie. When I found out about it, I was like, great. There's Kevin Hart and fucking Shane in town.

what this isn't I immediately got in my head I was like well the shows are going to be light some people probably bought tickets early and then they're going to switch and decide to go to something else but no no we got I got lucky it was it was fucking rat I did Minnesota and it was great and I'll never do Minnesota again because it gives him too much ego because he's from there oh yeah yeah he loves that shit he's sick it is a great comedy it's phenomenal it's fucking phenomenal and his mom and dad came which was great and they partied pretty hard with us and his dad I don't really even usually go out and do shit when I'm on the road but I did go see Paisley Park.

Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Wait, what do you mean? You don't do any... You would stay in the hotel and just right? Stay in this hotel. I sleep.

That's all you do? That's not all I do, but it's mostly what I do. I go on the road to sleep. I'm a busy body boy. I sleep, and I get up. I'll go find a nice place to have a lunch or whatever like that. But I don't give a fuck about your museums and shit. I really don't give a shit.

Oh, see, I like to go see something. I want to go see something. I want to go... Philly I did. Like, Philly we went to the Liberty Bell. We went and did a bunch of stuff there. It depends on the city. But sometimes when I go and it's Minnesota and it's negative 10 degrees, I'm like, it's either the mall or nothing else.

Yeah, that I agree. No, I'm not too. But if it's nice, like every time I go to a city, I usually try to find out where's the best restaurant? What's the best food for sure? What's the best bar? What's the best spot to go see? Like, what's the best sneaky thing to go get into? That I'll try to do.

Like every time in San Francisco and I did not fucking go this time because I was laying it easy on the sauce. but I go up to Buena Vista to have an Irish coffee. That's tradition, and I didn't do it this year. I'm a little mad. But there's that, I mean, I think it, look up Buena Vista, San Francisco. I think it's where they say the Irish coffee started, or so they, you know. Americans say that. Yeah, you know what I mean.

So they protest that. It's like where this version of it happened, you know. Yeah, in 1952. The first introduced the drink in the U.S. Yeah, to the U.S., right. But Buena Vista, one of the best views, it's fucking stunning. It's overlooking the water, and you go in the evening right before a show. I would just go sit, have an Irish coffee, get a little caffeine and a little, how are you?

It's maybe one of my favorite things to do. But I have those little things in every city where it's like, oh, I always do this when I go there, so I like it. Because I don't know, man, the anxiety is sitting in the hotel. If I'm sitting around. Oh, I can't sit in a hotel. That's, I'll get. There's nothing more depressing. Oh, yeah.

I don't care if you're in the best health state, mental health state, sitting in a hotel room all day will fuck you up. I don't know what it is, man. I go work out. I go work out. I walk usually. I try to walk and just clear my head. I like taking long walk. Stuff like that. But that's why I think the pilots, you hear about pilots that get really depressed. I remember reading an article about pilots, like high suicide rate and all this stuff. And I thought, well, the pressure I know is high in their job. But then I live a similar, it's always hotel, hotel, hotel, hotel.

But also then you're going right from your hotel to a tube where you're locked in. Right. Right. So think about that. Yeah. And that's it just made me think, right. Of course, they're a little strong. stressed out beyond the stress of the job itself being difficult and challenging you're sitting in a fucking hotel every night and by the way i may be wrong but i almost remember you know if they do have a cocktail the night before their flight or whatever it has to be such enough time that they would have to blow a double zero by the time they got on that plane so a lot of these guys don't even get to have maybe a drink with dinner or whatever to just relax they got to eat food go to bed

wake up for a fourth you know whatever five a m go but i think how i think about that as a comics like we're privileged we sleep in these hotels we can wake up whenever the fuck we want and then you know meander through the town these guys got to have a stressful foreign environment then wake up then go to another stressful foreign environment uh that's that i do get the anxiety of the job like i finally get it what is it you said yes right yeah minimum uh eight hour bottle to throttle rule before flying b a c limit of under 0.04 percent bottle to throttle and many airlines have even stricter policies but that's just the regular FAA under 0.04% before flying.

Bottle to throttle. Yeah, eight hours. So even if they're going to have a cocktail, if they've got an early... Midnight to 8 a.m. Yeah. Nope. Nothing. Well, look, and most of the time, these guys probably got to be up for, you know,

7 a.m. flight or some bullshit like that. Think about that. They're like, all the only was have, like, a nice steak and a glass of wine. No, you got to eat food, go to your room and sit there, twittle your fucking thumbs or your wife and kids are back in Omaha, and then you're...

You know what I mean? I do understand the plight of those guys. That's why sometimes when you see him in the airport, you're like, this motherfucker look sad. You with American today? All right. Feel better, man. You got a Spokane? You're not going to Spokane?

No. All right, my man. You just look sad, bro. Brother, sometimes you'd see them and you're like, God. That's the old Robin Harris joke. You remember Robin Harris, Babeba's kids? Oh, one of my waves. Oh, you don't remember Robin Harris?

The comedian Robin Harris. Did he die? Yes, he did, unfortunately. He's a legend, man. Sweet Dick Willie and do the right thing and Pops from House Party. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the original.

I remember this cat. He had a joke. I do remember him. And he was great. His live album. Chicago Boy. Yeah. His live album.

He's in Harlem Nights. He's in a bunch of stuff. His live album is one of the ones I like to go back and listen to also because it's an album. And he's drinking. And he is loose as shit by the end of that fucking thing. And he is talking shit about Compton. He's in L.A. and they're yelling at him, and he doesn't give a full.

fuck but he's talking about how he's scared of death to fly and he said you know i went to therapist or whatever and they're like hey listen man you're going to die when it's your time and then he goes what if we're up there and it's the pilots time that's what the fuck do we do it i'll say it's a great point is a great fucking what do we do if it's the pilots he goes uh he goes they want me to fly on an all black airline he said the pilots walking around a parachute on his back he's like jet magazine sliding around the front up there. I was like, oh. He's like, I don't want any pilot. Died young, too. I just saw that. 36, 36. Heart attack, 36. Yeah, I think he also had

like narcolepsy or something. He had health issues. Narcolepsy. 36 years old. That's a baby. That's a child, too. When you see the photos of him, you thought he was in his 50s. And if you see the body of work, he put together too quickly, it's pretty impressive and then the baby's kids too if you guys don't know robin harris i'm telling you right now baby's kid the album is phenomenal and then i think after he died they turned it into a cartoon and i think they might have had a sound alike guy doing his voice and stuff but the whole thing about do you know baby's kids huh baby's kids is when you're dating a girl and she says i'm paraphrasing this of course he's dating a girl and he's taking her and her

kids to Disneyland and she shows up with like six other kids and he's like well whose kids are these and she's like don't worry about it these are Bay Bayes kids and she gave him $20 to get at Disneyland he starts going off how much it costs to get all these kids in Disneyland and how these kids are horrible

kids how they fucked up Donald Duck like they're just little terrors and it that bit in that stand-up special turned into this whole animated cartoon and everything called Babeba's kids called Bay Bay Bayes Kids yeah and they're just bad little fucking kids. Right.

That's a genius. He came out of 92 and he's voiced by Phazon Love. Oh, Phazon. Did it? Okay. There you go. In his debut performance. That was his first gig? In his acting debut. Holy shit. Wow. I didn't know that. Okay. What was it on? What was it on? It was released theatrically. It was a film.

It was a movie. Oh, it was a movie? It's a film. Yeah. There's not an animated cartoon series as well? I could have swore I saw episodes of that thing. Or maybe I'm just seeing that pop up. I believe it's just Yeah, it appears to be the... Or maybe there was a television series that came out after,

but the film appears to release first. Oh, look. Wild. Bay-Base Kids. Check out Bay Bay-Base Kids. More importantly, watch Ryan Sickler special. Yeah, watch my special. Yeah, watch that first.

Don't go to Bay Bay-Base Kids first. Bay, Bay, Bay, Bays Kids, wait, goddamn. Yeah, that can wait. Watch Ryan's special. I love you. I love you. I appreciate you coming on the show. I love you. I love you.

I appreciate you. One of the greatest dudes alive. We end the show the same way. Look at that camera, say one word or one phrase to close out the episode whenever you're ready. One word or one phrase. Yeah, hold on.

I got one last thing. Hong Kong Phui's cat is named Spot. Thank you. There you go. Spot. It only took us an hour to get to that fucking thing. There you go.

That's my top researcher right there. Slept in, was late, came in, nailed the spot. Nailed it. Right on the nose. I mean, should that be my final word, Spot? No.

No, no. Do it yourself. Do it yourself. Do whatever makes you happy. Don't rely on anybody else. Do it yourself. In here, we pour whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey, whiskey. You were that creature in the ginger beard.

Sturdy and ginger. Like vampires, the ginger gene is a curse. Ginger's a fugitive. You only $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse. Ginger's, oh hell now. This whiskey is excellent. Ginger, I like gingers. Thank you.