The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Carrot Top - CarrotDew

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

My HoneyDew this week is comedian Carrot Top! (Don’t Suck) Carrot Top Highlights the Lowlights of his unique upbringing in life and comedy. 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 Omaha, NE | March 29th & 30th Columbus, OH | April 12th & 13th Los Angeles, CA | May 12th 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: BetterHelp -The HoneyDew is sponsored by BetterHelp, get 10% off your first month at https://www.Betterhelp.com/HONEYDEW Liquid I.V. -Get 20% off ANYTHING you order when you go to https://www.LiquidIV.com and use code HONEYDEW Rocket Money -Stop wasting money on things you don’t use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to https://www.RocketMoney.com/HONEYDEW

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Omaha, we're going to do it this time. I promise you, last time we got our flights canceled. This time, we're taking a straight shot. I'll be there Friday, March 29th, and Saturday, March 30th. Columbus, Ohio, I'm fired up to head your way. Never been there. My first time coming to your beautiful city. I'll be there Friday, April 12th, and Saturday, April 13th.
Starting point is 00:00:21 Los Angeles, I'm excited to announce that I'm part of the Netflix Is It Joke Festival. I have my own show Sunday, May 12th at the Bourbon Room. You guys ask me, how come you're not on Netflix? Well, here's a chance to sell this thing out and show them why I should be. Get your tickets now. Don't wait. All tickets available at
Starting point is 00:00:39 RyanSickler.com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler dot com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the Honeydew, y'all. We're over here doing it in the night pan studios. I'm Ryan Sickler. Ryan Sickler dot com. Ryan Sickler on all your
Starting point is 00:01:06 social media. And I'm going to start this episode like I start them all by saying thank you. Thank you for supporting this show. Thank you for supporting anything I do. It's genuinely appreciated you guys. I love my job. All right. And if you've got to have more of this show, then you've got to check out the Patreon. It's called the Honeydew with y'all, and it's this show with y'all. And I keep telling you, y'all have the craziest stories I've ever heard in my life. And if you just want to check out a sample, go listen to the episodes I do right here on The Honeydew with Josh Wolfe, where we highlight like 10 of our favorite episodes. We've done two or three of those now. Check those out. I promise you it'll blow your mind. All right. two or three of those now. Check those out. I promise you it'll blow your mind. All right.
Starting point is 00:01:49 And thank you for supporting the way back. I genuinely appreciate it. It's going great. I love this show. All the guests you're seeing here, we're trying to get on there as well. Have fun with them. So go subscribe to that. You know what to do to help it out. Rate it, review it. Check out the audio feed as well. does exist all right and uh come see me on tour if i'm in your town when you're around tickets are available ryan sickler.com all right that's it you guys know what we do here we highlight the low lights and i always say these are the stories behind the storytellers and i am very excited to have this guest on today first time here on the honeydew please welcome carrot top welcome to the Honeydew. Please welcome Carrot Top. Welcome to The Honeydew.
Starting point is 00:02:28 Thanks for having me on. Dude, thank you for doing it. I have a lot of lowlights, by the way. That's great. That's good. Yeah. I'm serious. All right.
Starting point is 00:02:34 Before we get into it, please. I'm Carrot Top. I'm full of lowlights. Yeah. You can't be full of highlights, bro. Even the hat's got a little. The rainbow's falling off. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:43 I know. It's typical. I made it. It's falling apart. That's all you can tell if I made little The rainbow's falling off Oh yeah I know It's like It's typical I made it It's falling apart That's all you can tell If I made it It's falling apart Promote everything you'd like
Starting point is 00:02:50 Please Well you know what I'm lucky to have the show In Las Vegas At the Luxor I've had It's our 18th year We'll be there
Starting point is 00:02:55 That's crazy I know it's unreal We'll be there Another six years It can vote now At the Luxor So I'll be I'll be dead
Starting point is 00:03:02 By the time I'm done At the Luxor 18 years 18 years Yeah And we have some road shows coming up, I believe, in Indio, Palm Springs, something like that coming up in March. You can look it up on my website, carrottop.com. All right. Other than that, we're working, working, working. Yeah, dude. Well, I'm so stoked to have you here.
Starting point is 00:03:20 Thank you. We'll get into a few things. I was talking to you before we started, but your real name is scott thompson for those people who don't know that um and i said to you you know who came first and would you you would have had to change your name because of scott thompson and kids in the hall anyway but right you became and then i told you you know i researched my guests enough but i also know from the shit i see about myself online, like, look, I'm not tall, but I'm not 5'6". Right, right, right. I'm not motherfucking 5'6". Right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:03:48 So I know, you know, take shit for what it's worth. But I said I saw that a coach gave me this nickname. Yeah, I don't know where that came from. My swimming coach named me that because that's definitely not what happened. I was always – I had been called other things worse than that. And I was in my dorm room. I just started to, I wasn't even a comedian. I wanted to be a comedian.
Starting point is 00:04:09 So I thought, I got to draw a logo, right? So I had this, I drew a logo. My friend says, what's that? I said, it's a logo. For what? I said, like for one of my classes. And I said, no, it's for my act. You know, when I become a comedian, that's my logo.
Starting point is 00:04:23 And he's like, you don't have a joke. So I said, I know, but I have a logo. That's more importantly. So I got that out of the way. I'm thinking the same thing. That's interesting. And I thought of it was a brand. I was a marketing major, so I kept saying it's got to be a brand.
Starting point is 00:04:35 It can't be Scott Thompson because there's already Scott Thompson kids in the hall. Plus, that's not a show-busy name to me. So I thought, I want to be a name like when you're walking down, you know, like Vegas, you just see it and it stands out. And I said, ah, Carrot Top. I don't know how I just hit me Carrot Top. So I drew this logo with a carrot and a thing holding a microphone and there, Carrot Top.
Starting point is 00:04:57 It was a blessing and a curse, by the way, Ryan. I hear you on that. I mean, you know, first I did it and then someone says Carrot Top. I'm like, what have I done? You know, I've called myself carrot drop. I should have gone with Queen Latifah. It was still available.
Starting point is 00:05:08 It was still available. It was still available. Damn it. Yeah, bro. This is a wild parallel, but Deion Sanders did the same thing with primetime. He was in his college dorm and was like, okay, I'm not a player. I'm a brand. Right. And went that direction first yeah uh so that's that's great that's great yeah and then well it was kind
Starting point is 00:05:32 of really honestly how it started with me with the with the with the when the name came out too first when you start doing clubs as you did you'd get to the club and there'd be 25 30 comics a night so when i went up there with my trunk, at first I didn't think of this. I had my little prop trunk. It was just a trunk with like a rainbow on it or something. And I was pulling all my props out and I went down. Then one night I'm back there watching.
Starting point is 00:05:55 After I was done, my prop trunk was left open. And I said to myself, why do I not put Carrot Top in the lid of that? So the whole time they're watching me, it's an ad. So I put Carrot Top in the lid of the trunk. And time they're watching me it's a that's an ad so i put carrot top in the lid of the trunk and then it was like you know the brand started and people would come up after the show and say carrot top or who did you see this carrot top guy was because they they saw it it was marketing it was in their head so i did in a sense get to use some of my marketing uh skills with the with that because people make funny in marketing and then
Starting point is 00:06:23 you're a communist i still to this day use marketing, even like with the trunk lid and the name of the brand and the whole thing. It's so smart. You should be putting it up on. Right behind you. So, again, I researched you, and the only thing I really sort of found about your upbringing was your dad worked for NASA, your brother's Air Force F-16 pilot, it said.
Starting point is 00:06:45 Yeah, yeah. All right. But I saw nothing about your mom or anything. So can we talk about, like, where are you from originally? My mom's in prison. We don't talk about my mom much. Are you? All right.
Starting point is 00:06:54 My mom was like the sweet. There's a lot of people sat there whose moms are in prison. A lot of times, like, oh, you're kidding. No, I'm not kidding. She is. Oh, Jesus. No. She is in prison.
Starting point is 00:07:03 We're in comedy, too. All right. Now, my mom is furthest from that. She owned a tennis shop. So my dad working in NASA and my mom owned a tennis shop. She was definitely kind of literally the yin and yang. I got my father's creativity side, being an engineer, where I build all my props. And then I got my mom's personality, where I've got the thing.
Starting point is 00:07:19 So it really did blend well. My brother, I don't know. He was just F-16 fight jitter pilot you know you know i'm gluing dildos and walkers together and gluing hats strategically though strategically there's a way to do it you can try to build your own but you hit i know how to do it you can take that nasa back background and do different shit with it dude but learn yeah so your dad what is he what was he doing for nasa is he still with nas? No, he's not. He's now retired. I resigned. Retired.
Starting point is 00:07:46 He's moved on to heaven. But when he worked there, he was in logistics. And so he made, first of all, what he did I thought was kind of cool. He taught the astronauts how to drive on the moon, the lunar module. Get the fuck out of here. How did he learn how to do that? Has he ever been on? Right.
Starting point is 00:08:03 Did you go to the moon to learn this? I mean, right. And he said, that's a great question, son. You're smart. So I guess they just taught – no one knew. That's what was interesting. They had to teach what they would think might happen on the moon and how to drive if there was just conditions and how they, you know, practice and rehearse for all that. And after the moon landing, then he moved into shuttle.
Starting point is 00:08:22 And at the shuttle thing – Wait, was he there for the original moon landing, the first? Yeah, he was. Was he? Yeah. The one that people think didn't happen? The one that people think wasn't. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:31 It's too bad my dad wouldn't hear and ask him about that. I'm going to see someone get riled up. My dad would be fine. He'd be fucking. I think I taught people how to drive on the moon. Yeah, I think. Exactly. I think I was there how to drive on the moon. Yeah, I think you're right. Exactly. I think I was there.
Starting point is 00:08:46 Hold on. Your dad taught Neil Armstrong how to drive a vehicle for the moon? Yeah. Dude, that's crazy. Yeah, I know. And as a kid, I never really thought. I didn't think anything of it. We're kids.
Starting point is 00:08:57 I just thought, I don't want to go to another launch. You know what I mean? I want to watch the Jenkins Island. So we'd go watch the launch. And I think I was, this is fun. I was thinking I was 13. My dad, we're going to see the shuttle launch. And we're out there at the Cape.
Starting point is 00:09:10 And there's a tent for beer and soda and chips and stuff. And there's a tent for beer. So my dad says, what do you want? I said, I don't know, just a Coke and a hot dog. And my dad says, well, I'm not waiting that line. You're having a beer. I said, how old are you? 13.
Starting point is 00:09:25 So I said, all right. Don't tell your mom, but have a beer. So he gets the beer and he's like, try it. And I'm like, you don't like it? He said, it's okay. He's like, do you want me to get you a cup? I said, no, I'm fine. I'll rough through it.
Starting point is 00:09:36 So I drank my first beer and I think I saw three launches. And then we got home. My mom's like, how was the launch? I said, oh my God, I got drunk. Dad got me a beer. And I'm yeah were you there for Challenger yes I was well I was there I was in I know exactly where I was I was in my car as a courier when I was in college when I just first doing comedy I drove bank bank reports to banks and back so that's why I was listening to every day on the radio this comedy show and I would listen to listen to it so i was in on the car in the on the highway and it when it
Starting point is 00:10:11 happened and we didn't have cell phones so i pulled over and got a pay phone and called my dad at work and i remember my dad picking up are you seeing that in the sky you're in florida right oh no we saw it yeah but what happened was they said, this is going to happen any second. So we all pulled over. Oh, I see. You're all watching the law. And then I saw it, and I was like, that didn't look good. And then everyone on the news was speculating something.
Starting point is 00:10:35 So I said, well, I got the first hand knowledge. I was calling my father, right, to his office. And it didn't pick up at first. And then I went and drove a little bit further, and I got back to school. And I called him again, and then he picked up. And I said, I can't talk, son. I said, what's going on? He says, well, the shuttle blew up.
Starting point is 00:10:53 And, you know, I just never forget what the world was going through. But knowing people that I knew there, like I had met some of those astronauts, and I met. You did. Yeah. And my father, of course, knew them like they were best of friends. I mean, like Gus Grissom days. He used to take Gus Grissom's Corvette and drive these astronauts. They all had Corvettes or usually Corvettes.
Starting point is 00:11:18 That was like the car the astronauts drove. And they had them in Houston. And then they got go to florida they wouldn't my dad would drive their cars just for fun he said i'll take like a cannonball ron strong i'll take yeah i'll take yeah like a cannonball run and my dad would take one of the astronauts back home and so we pulled into you know my driveway and i'm like what the this neil armstrong's corvette don't don't touch it yeah so it was So it was unreal. Before that, I had to be also like, listen, guys, I teach them how to drive, not fly.
Starting point is 00:11:49 I mean, right. I teach them how to drive on the moon. I think I can teach them how to drive a Corvette. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man, that's wild. Yeah, it's crazy, right? You don't think about it as a kid.
Starting point is 00:12:01 So then you tell them, hey, I'm going to get into comedy. They're like, what? I remember I was in – we had home ec. I don't even think they a kid so then you tell me i'm gonna get into comedy like what i remember i was in art we had home ec i don't even think they teach that i don't know or i'm in there learning how to make pizza english muffins and we're watching it we stopped class you know everybody's watching and then also the teachers are freaking out because uh was it krista or christine mccullough she was mccullough she was a teacher right so they that was one of theirs you know what i mean so i remember the teachers running in the room going are are you, you know what I mean? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:27 Not even necessarily worrying about us for a second, but like that was us. Right. Yeah. Still get chills from that. Still get home from that. Yep. So what, were your parents always, were they together the whole time? No, they split when, probably after the first beer, 13 years old.
Starting point is 00:12:44 Yeah, that was it yeah when he found out my dad gave me a beer they split so yeah about 13 years old they moved uh apart and they divorced and separated but you know they were always cordial and fun to each other and uh you know who did you go with uh i was with my well yeah i split time with both my mom and then uh my dad lived that far down so i started going to college community college at first um i'd stay back and forth him for that first year and then uh and then i just decided i think i want to go to like college college and get out of coco my dad's like you're gonna you know you're gonna work at nasa and i'm like oh he was set on
Starting point is 00:13:22 you doing that well yeah but i said i do a thing in the show we're about i said you know i want i'm gonna you know i want you to be when i tell him i want to be do a comp be a comic he says you do know that's probably never going to happen i tell the crowd and it's dead silent i said it's probably right it's probably he was probably right it's true but what a dick why would you say that so then i asked my dad well what do you want me to be when i get older and he says i want you to be an engineer like your father and work at nasa and train astronauts like i did and i call back to you you do know that's probably never gonna happen like i'm the dumb son the f-16 guys over there but also the odds i feel like of both jobs yeah might be pretty parallel to not necessarily coming to fruition yeah yeah right
Starting point is 00:14:01 i think both are cool jobs too like being a F-16 fighter jet pilot in the Air Force Academy is pretty darn cool. But then my brother thinks being a stand-up comedian, especially later on, on TV and whatnot, is pretty cool, too. So we both have fun professions, and we look at each other like, you know what you're doing. I kind of know what I'm doing. He knows what he's doing. Yeah, we can make a mistake. Your dad and your brother's professions can't really. I always say that.
Starting point is 00:14:29 I said, I have a bad show. There's always another show. You have a bad landing. You don't have another bad landing. So there's a lot more pressure to be in positions than we are. I think people give us so much praise, but it's like, you know, it's okay. We can rebound after a bad show so where do you where do you fit in like what do you like growing up at are you a good student are you fucking around
Starting point is 00:14:52 are you getting in trouble are you definitely not fucking around i was really quiet to myself um not a good student so i was always, I probably haven't ever been checked, but like ADD or whatever they call. So you were the quiet, bad student. No, quiet, good, never. If I ever did. You were a good student, but you didn't do well with grades. Right, bad grades. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:15:15 But I wasn't acting up. Disrespect. Or even like the class clown. I wasn't. I would have a joke ready or a one line. Would you? With the teacher, but it was always just the one line i wouldn't stand up and run around the crowd and try to i just would like you know out of quip and
Starting point is 00:15:31 everyone would always go yeah scott that's funny you know do you remember one that still stands out from like middle school where you're like fuck yeah i got that was good or even the teacher was like man that shit's funny i remember well i remember one where we were talking about going to uh having a fire what did you guys do on the weekends or something i said i said well my friends and i went had a uh a campfire on the beach and the police came and they made us leave and uh i asked the policeman why couldn't we stay on the beach and have our fire and he says because it's too dangerous and i said we're sitting next to two things that put fires out. We have water and sand. It can't be the more safest place to put a fire.
Starting point is 00:16:11 And she just looked at me. She goes, that's very smart of you. And I said, well, that's what I said to the cop. He didn't find it that funny. He said, take it in the woods. And I'm like, well, that's good. Take it in the woods. Take it in the woods where it's, you know.
Starting point is 00:16:21 Safe. Yeah, so that's kind of what my brain would think. Like, well, am I missing something? The cleverness. You know, it's, you know. Same. Yeah. So that's kind of what my brain would think. Like, well, am I missing something? The cleverness. You know, it's observational. It's also true. You know, it's even like now when I do my Trump thing, it's always what makes the Trump thing fun is I'm not making fun of Trump. I'm making fun of just his voice or his thing, his manner.
Starting point is 00:16:40 Like we didn't have bottles. We never had bottles before. But I made bottles. But microphones weren't here. There was no microphones. People just yelled at each other i made mics you know so it's that it's kind of like that's funny to me because you're making absurdity of of everything about not just you know not liking the guy and if the voice if you can get close mine's so bad it's mine's so bad that it's good uh you just gotta you just gotta sit down lower though in the seat
Starting point is 00:17:03 but um i'm sure every comic does a trump but it makes it fun just because if i think they're laughing at the voice and i'm making fun of the guy or his politics right yeah right i'm making fun because you'll say that the best thing i've ever they hear i made this you know that's trump of the cold i think i'm a cold today so are you getting bullied? Are you a kid that's getting – you're obviously different. You've got red hair. You're a pale kid that's quiet.
Starting point is 00:17:33 It's such an interesting word, bullying, because – I'm – okay. No, I'm saying it's because that's the word people use, and I used to get picked on. I guess it would be called bullying. Today it is. I don't remember ever, and thank God, I was never picked on like in a violent way where I was, you know, beaten up at the bus stop or they would make fun of me verbally because I weighed 100 pounds.
Starting point is 00:17:57 I had freckles, red hair, and I live on a beach. So, you know, so like, and your brother's like the blonde. My brother's blonde. You're the only one with red hair. Six, two. So I used to say before the, I said, no, you know, in my adopted life, they would say, oh, you're really adopted? I said, well, I feel like I am. You know, they would say, who has the red hair in the family?
Starting point is 00:18:17 And I'd say, we have an iris setter. That was the only thing I could come up with. But I don't think I was picked on, like bullied as much as I was. I was the guy that stood. No, right. So I stood out like a sort of, even like today. I mean, I walked through an airport. I definitely look like, you know, someone different than a normal person.
Starting point is 00:18:37 So when young people do it like that with bullying, I see it. I have a little four-year-old goddaughter that, you know, every time I say, just yesterday, I said, oh, my God, that was so funny. She gets so angry if I say she's funny. And I think what's happening in some of the school, that's how they make fun of someone. It's always like funny looking or funny. I said, no, no, no, no. If someone says you're funny, they're complimenting you like you're funny. You made us laugh.
Starting point is 00:19:01 She goes, no, I don't be funny. I don't want to be funny. I'm like, okay. I don't think she quite so that could be something that happens you know banter wise it with with kids again but yes i was definitely picked on thank god my brother was a senior i was a freshman so everyone knew my brother he was a swimmer and he was like i said it was garrett he was everyone knew him so i was garrett's little brother so all of his friends would always pick me up i weighed 100 pounds.
Starting point is 00:19:29 And I got to be part of the cool team because I was Garrett's brother. So then when my brother left, and I was just the only one there, then I had to fend for myself. And that's when I started doing, well, trying to be more funny and try to get into comedy. Not get into stand-up comedy, just get into being funny with more quips with people and observational things. And then it started in college with the actual – of coming up with, I think I'm going to be a stand-up comic. Which is fun looking back, right? Even you, like, it's just a weird thing. And you dive into something that you know nothing about. Like I said, I've never – I mean, I would watch George Carlin and watch phyllis diller and everyone on the tonight shows didn't know anyone who did it
Starting point is 00:20:09 right no no no right voice or i didn't even know what a manager and agent was i thought we were just getting up making people laugh at first you know then i'm like oh shit now we got to do this that's absolutely the truth um i was the worst with that with comic because i would do i would do gigs and i wouldn't even pick up my check because i just i i almost just i was was not so much not doing it for the money i was just couldn't believe i was doing it i would leave and they say you didn't pick up your check and i'm like oh all right and people other comics like that's like the first thing i did before i went on stage i'm, I know I wasn't thinking about getting paid. I was just thinking about the show and thinking about getting to the next gig.
Starting point is 00:20:51 And, you know, I had just enough money, you know, to get gas and a beer. I mean, literally nothing. And then I didn't think about that. It was just the idea of doing it and then not doing it. I went for a phase where I couldn't get gigs anymore so i just quit did you yeah and i went and i went to back to florida and i was shucking oysters at this bar and there's a jukebox back there and i'm dancing around like mcjagger and aerosmith and michael jackson which is now at the end of my show it's a it's weird that's where this whole thing at the end of my show came from when i was 17 18 years old and uh
Starting point is 00:21:28 i turned it into this whole rock montage thing but um miss chuck and oysters and these two these two couples came in and i'm doing my you know stupid ship shook in the oysters and i'm like mick jagger and i'm i'm cutting up napkins and going, you know, excuse me, and the feathers come out. Every stupid bar gag you could possibly come up with. And they're laughing and they look at me and they're like, you have a twin somewhere. And I said, God forbid, you know, I have a twin. Jesus, jump now.
Starting point is 00:21:57 He says, no, they're all like, no, no, like not funny. Like you've been to Tampa? I said, been to Tampa. Oh, you have a twin. What's the guy's he does comedy he was we saw him he's so funny and you guys say carrot top and you said i said carrot top and i go carrot top yeah you should look this guy up he's fun he's the funniest guy ever he has all these things and gags and i go yeah and i went oh wow cool that's cool carrot
Starting point is 00:22:21 top huh i'll check that out and I went to my manager that night and I said, I might have to go back in to do what I used to do before. So I'm not going to leave, but I'll give you two weeks notice. And he says, what are you doing? I said, comedy. And he said, you were doing comedy? I said, yeah, I never, I quit. He says, oh, we're going to do it again. So I said, yeah, I think. So I called my buddy, booked gig. And I said, you don't happen to have a gig anything i haven't done comedy in like two years so i don't know if you have you know he said i have new year's eve and uh fort myers i'm like well i'm not my first show back's not gonna be
Starting point is 00:22:57 new year's eve and a 500 seat comedy club no way it's called dr owls comedy so i said um no you have like a bar a little shithole gig i can do and he said no take this one i fuck your i said i'm bob i haven't done comedy and like he's like your carrot top fuck's sake you got it and i said okay and i put the bit the bullet and i went down there and uh my mother of all people got wind of it she said i'm gonna come watch you with dolores and was this the first time she had come ever yeah even i should never see dolores is such an old lady's name that was my grandma dolores yes so mom and dolores donna and dolores came such a good tv show donna and dolores like right after uh cadme and lacey so they came into the show and and as you know if you know but
Starting point is 00:23:45 a new year's eve shows me and people it was just it was it was it was anything but um a crowd listening and put should they were just throwing whistles and blinging them right so it was perfect i got up there i did my my time i had to do and at the end they were just shooting corks off and the manager was like that was great you killed it i said i didn't even do any my act he said no you've worked the crowd let them do they were shooting corks through my fucking hands so i i went back did and then that's you know the dance then here i am did donna and dolores love donna and dolores yeah they loved it my mom to this day will still remember you remember that night i was there i said yes of course i remember that my father never got to see me perform until the very end he did get through that he did he did and then he became a huge fan
Starting point is 00:24:28 but my dad was not into me this is what i wanted to ask you this is a nasa man your brother's going in the air force mom's got her tennis thing going were your parents supportive at first i wouldn't say they weren't supportive but they were not into it both of my mom well my mom was just you know if you can do it you're free to do, my mom was just, you know, you can do it. You're free to do it. My dad was like, bullshit. You're not going, forget doing comedy. You're not going out of Cocoa, Florida. You're going to stay and work at the Space Center.
Starting point is 00:24:54 And I kept saying, dad, you have to be smart to work at the Space Center. I've got to break it to you. Now, being a comic, you have to be smart, too. But I was just being stupid. I was going to say, you're obviously wise. And it's a different smart. Right. It's just a totally different smart totally different it is it's a totally different smart so i go and i and i just start pursuing it and i end up doing it but and you know just enough to
Starting point is 00:25:12 buy beer and stuff so i had to get one or two gigs outside of you know one in north florida and one like even further i never been out of state i think it was like on the edge of georgia and i was so nervous i'd never driven myself out of the state of Florida before in my life. And here I am in my car. There's no cell phones. I don't know how to get to it. I have a map, you know, an actual map. So I go.
Starting point is 00:25:35 And I started doing these things. And finally I said to my dad, you know, you want to come see one of my shows? And he was like, I don't even know exactly. What do you do? We do stand-up. What does that mean? I said, stand-up comedy. It's jokes.
Starting point is 00:25:48 He's like, all right. So he comes to one of the shows. And it was just one of those moments in your life that you see your father just like, who the fuck are you? Because I was always so quiet. I never did anything. And I'll set him on stage and I'm doing this. Yeah, you've got that energy and everything. But I have an act and an energy and a thing and my dad's like this is fucking great like he was so proud of me and then from that point on he you know he called himself pop
Starting point is 00:26:14 top you know he became pop tops and my brother garrett i call him garrett top but my dad started it all with pop top pop but then he became a huge fan i mean he couldn't believe he still before he died he still because i i just don't know how the hell you you did that and came i don't know i'm proud of you but i'm you know i i just kind of did it too i didn't i didn't really i just did it there's not like an uncle and yeah i never really asked anybody i mean ever i just't really i just did it there's not like an uncle yeah i never really asked anybody i mean ever i just kept doing it and even when i got on tv that was like the first time i you know i wouldn't tell anybody that was even doing i just called one night and my you know my dad and my mom and some people that i grew up with and i said hey i'm on the i'm on
Starting point is 00:26:58 the tonight show tonight if you're around and they're like you're on what show tonight i'm like the tonight show and like like i said like nbc and that was when it was i think it really struck you know i'm i'm standing on the little gold star and it's like you know that was you know for them and me i mean that was some you're like holy shit i think i'm i'm in show business like now i'm you know went from shawik and ostrich to to doing this the honeydew is sponsored by BetterHelp. A lot of us spend our lives wishing we had more time. The question is time for what?
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Starting point is 00:30:48 Let me ask you a quick question. It goes so fast. Then another good two years, three years, you're doing movies and you're doing TV. Then all of a sudden you're like, I never got a chance to absorb that moment, really. But that moment. If that couple doesn't come in and say that to you, do you think you go back? I don't think. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:31:09 I mean, that had to happen. I think that unbelievably of a kismet i had to have i don't know and probably happened for a reason because you're right i don't think definitely because i definitely was not i was saying that's what pushed you right back in a way i mean i was done i didn't even think about it ever again and then i when i did think about and then do it then i had that that feeling it back and then i was like okay i think i'm gonna try about it and then do it, then I had that, that feeling of back. And then I was like, okay, I think I'm going to try this more. And then, and then, yeah, I was just one day I was doing a club. It was, yeah, like it was a club in this barn and it was, it was over and I was packing up all my stuff and people were coming up to the stage as I was putting my stuff away. And they said, why aren't you,
Starting point is 00:31:41 so I'm in a lot of TV shows, we're on comics, we're on TV shows. And this couple says, why aren't you, why aren't you? That's what happened when a lot of TV shows were on, comics were on TV shows. And this couple says, why aren't you on TV? And because it was a TV thing on average. I said, I don't know. I don't know how to get, I don't know how to even get on TV. And this guy's like, well, you should be on there. So I had this guy that wanted to be my manager. And I said, he said, what a manager.
Starting point is 00:32:03 And I said, well, what would a manager do? And he said, well, I'll help you do this. I'll do that. I said, will you, will you get me on TV? And he said, yeah. And I said, okay, if you can get me on TV, we'll do it. So it wasn't that long later. It might've been two, three weeks. He said, I think I got you on a comic strip live, which was a huge, it was, three weeks, he said, I think I got you on Comic Strip Live, which was huge. It was Fox. And it was filmed right in LA at the Jamie's Club there. And I go, and I'd never been in California.
Starting point is 00:32:38 There's TVs, lights, just like this. It's an actual, I'm scared to death. And I remember just thinking to myself, I'm scared to death. I'm going thinking myself i'm scared to death like i'm going up as tv people and you know and everyone i'm too quiet you know and i just for some reason i just took a deep breath and said you know what just do it like you're doing like you're at the club in charlotte it's nothing different except there's a camera guy there so i went up and i just was like yeah i forgot there was cameras and I just did my first joke was a crime watch neighborhood crime watch sign that I stole.
Starting point is 00:33:09 I said, this is how good our crime watch is and I'm watching their fucking signs and it killed. I mean that first big laugh. And then I thought, Oh my God, fuck this is killing it. And then I went in to do the rest of mine,
Starting point is 00:33:21 whatever the hell. Did you do Wendy on that one? I think I closed. I think I closed on that one uh i think i closed i think i closed on that yeah i said that shit she's here yeah that i did yeah that was my that was my as i say in my show i always say that was my free bird do wendy's i'm like fuck all right you know and funny how that bit happened too so and it's just because you know like because people always wonder like how a rolling stones how they came up with whatever right all right i'm always curious like how the fuck did the song how did you know i'm friends
Starting point is 00:33:55 with queen i said how did you write like you know under pressure like i want to know that so the wendy's bit was my classic literally i i was at a Bahamas club, and I worked there for a whole week. And every opening act would go down to the luncheon. The only thing that was open was a Wendy's. And so we went to the same Wendy's every day. And every time we walked in there, the girls that worked in the Wendy's would always laughing at me. So I figured, okay, I'm goofy looking, da-da-da-da.
Starting point is 00:34:22 And finally one day, they're all laughing. I said, are you laughing? Americans are making you laugh. We come in here every day. And the girl's like, no, you, you. And she's like, you look like this. And I said, oh, I look like her? And they go, yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:37 And my friend's like, dude. I said, oh, I look like the Wendy's girl. So I took my hair and I put them like this. And they all started laughing. That's how that came about. So that night I went down to work. That day we went to the drugstore and I bought these little clips. And I just went on stage and I put my hair in pigtails like that.
Starting point is 00:34:56 And I walked on and I said, yeah, you think you look bad. Look at this shit. Fucking Wendy's. I'm the Wendy's girl. And then it turned into a whole bit where you pull up and like, shit, here and you clean up and you know they're looking at you like yeah so it turned into a whole like 20 minute routine but yeah that's how it happens just you know someone's laughing at me thinking like the wendy's girl i said ah fuck let's put that in the act well the thing i've always loved about you too is you have no problem shitting on yourself you have no problem
Starting point is 00:35:21 making fun of yourself or taking shot yourself at yourself. Where does that start? Well, I think that starts out when I'm – literally when I was being picked on as a kid. That was my way back. You'd beat them to the punch before they could – Yes. The M&M, the whole fucking – Literally before they could make fun of me, I've already done it. And better than they probably would have anyway. Right.
Starting point is 00:35:41 Yeah. Always. I mean, I would always boom and they'd be like, oh, I was just going to make fun of the fact that you're skinny and you have yeah freckles up yeah it exactly why so it was always self-deprecating and then and even comics that i admired and watched i always loved that i like i liked the it's like two things i like observational humor because i think people relate to it right when you say something it's like like they. I like observational humor because I think people relate to it, right? When you say something, it's like people, they literally have done this or seen it before they get it. I don't do a lot of politics.
Starting point is 00:36:12 I do the observational and do like everyday kind of storytelling, some of the things that just happen to me that people, now that I've gotten older, people love to hear, almost like what we're doing now. They want to hear like, well, how did you get into, how did you become, like, how did that happen? So, yeah, it's self-deprecating, observational. And to be a comic, you can't not be self-deprecating. We're not the heroes. Right. And you know, as long as you know that. So if there are people that don't do that, it doesn't work in comedy.
Starting point is 00:36:46 If you go up there and you're just like the hot guy in the thing, it's not going to. I mean, you know, one of my favorite people in the world, God bless him, would make me laugh. Just he could read a phone book and it was Louis Anderson. Yeah. So Louis, he's talking about self-deprecating, you know, big Louis. He'd come out and first thing he'd say i was at the beach today and that's a that's a laugh alone because he's at the beach and everyone trying to push me back in the water and two drunks and right away he's picking on himself and they're trying to push him
Starting point is 00:37:17 in the water how do you not love this guy i mean you just automatically love him if he didn't come out and address anything i think people would be like does he not know he's fat and, you just automatically love him. If he didn't come out and address anything, I think people would be like, does he not know he's fat? And you just love him. And it's like, you know, you can't, you got to come out and be the underdog. You know, you're not the, you're not the, you know, even a success you get, you're still carrot top. You know, I do so many things in my act that I pick, that I go back to say, like I said, you know, I said, I get a lot of love and I get a lot of shit. I said, but the shit, that's why I'm a comic. I mean, that's why I started doing comedy. I have to have thick skin, but there's things that make me laugh, things that people come up
Starting point is 00:37:57 with about me that are the furthest that it just makes me laugh. Like the carrot top had a facelift. I said, would I not look better if I had a fucking facelift? And everybody laughs. I go, no, seriously. Like I had a face. This is why, if I had one, I would look good. Why would I, right?
Starting point is 00:38:13 So then I do a picture of me. And this is me three years ago. It's a picture of me on the big screen. And this is me now. And it's a picture of, you know, Caitlyn Jenner. I said, I'm the same. I'm the same guy. I'm the same fucking guy.
Starting point is 00:38:24 And it gets the biggest and then i say right so i'm picking on myself for looking like you know i'm saying that i look like a drag queen and this is me now i'm the same fucking guy and then they laugh even harder they're like oh that's great he's got makeup on he's good yeah so it's it's always so the whole show is self deprecating i mean all the way through it's even when i'm doing it that my trump i'm i'm making fun of me not him like is my just so bad i have so many questions all right so you come from actually it sounds like good parents so you're not having to develop thick skin back then you sort of developed that defense mechanism out in the real world and schools things like that when do you or have you fully because i know some of us haven't
Starting point is 00:39:06 when do you finally accept this is who i am and i'm gonna fucking be this person and run with it when do you finally accept the rainbow hat you made probably in a couple weeks i'm not quite ready i feel you but no yeah i i well you what? When did you get comfortable in your skin? Probably when I turned 50. For real? Yeah. And you're how old now? 58.
Starting point is 00:39:31 58. And my crew would probably agree. I don't know what it was. I've been doing it all the time, all the time, doing it, doing it. And then I don't know, I hit 50, and I got into this rhythm with not only myself i got into a rhythm with um the show and and writing and and trying and and everything from doing sound checks before the show and rehearsing things new every night and um and just kind of being me like i'm like i'm gonna i'm gonna color my hair like rainbow and i'm gonna wear whatever you know i dress homeless if no one
Starting point is 00:40:06 asks for money that's why i dress like this if you look broke they won't ask you for money so but anything or anything not even direction nothing nothing so if you don't want to get fucked with you're dressed like a bum dressed like a bum i'm telling you you should start your own clothing line literally it's kind of like it's kind yeah i should it's kind of like that larry david has said when he wears the trumpet it's so fucking brilliant if you hadn't seen it probably have it gets him out of all when he weren't it's just same thing yeah so it's brilliant brilliant brilliant piece of comedy but um but yeah there is there was well yeah 50 and i don't know i'm not quite sure why
Starting point is 00:40:45 the actual age 50 was but i just think you know middle right at my turning point or i'm not going to live to be 100 but i was 50 i i've had success i i i just one day was like i want to have fun i want to be fun and i and i just started having more i started telling stories too on stage like i tell a lot of stories like people think the show and they see it they go wow i like the whole story telling are they expecting you just to do one they think it's just problems and the live show has evolved into this kind of a really a retrospective outline of how i and how who and how I got here. And so now that I have a fan base that's followed me,
Starting point is 00:41:27 they listen to every, it's dead silent, and they're listening at the end. They just love it. I did the whole thing about, you know, comics that inspire me, you know, from Carlin to Thing. And I tell a story and then I show a clip of George Carlin mentioning me on a Thing. I said, this is the moment where you just,
Starting point is 00:41:44 cause he said, that was at the airport. airport and they said did you pack your own bags and he goes no carrot top pack my fucking bags now i'm like an old crowd goes nuts and i'm like you know this and i'm like that kind of shit you know i never just sat back and enjoyed it and and shared it with the crowd and people send me shit people making but i said i should show that and say that's you know studying him in my dorm when i was 12 13 years old in catholic school and then you know he mentions me and a bit i'm like that's cool shit that's cool it's cool but that's about the age right around 50 i just said i'm gonna start having fun and dance around stage more and i kind of have my own stage you like look and
Starting point is 00:42:33 people like my crew that day said i like your whole everything is working right now i like i like the whole it's rock and roll mixed in with uh it's fun and i write more than I ever did I don't know why is that right yeah I just I mean I and in writing in a sense to have not even not if it works it's just writing and my problem is I don't own a computer so I still write everything in notepads do you yeah so and I one of these guys that I don't sit down and write I have many many friends that say I'm gonna I'm gonna what are you doing I'm gonna miss gonna i'm gonna write this morning or this afternoon or this weekend i'm like wow i've never done that never i just write all day long and then i'll i try to jot it down or if i'm even in conversation with someone i'm like like last
Starting point is 00:43:20 night i was having a conversation at the hotel i was like oh and this late guy was like that was so funny i'm thinking that was i got to remember how to put that in my somehow but that's how it usually would happen or i'll add a little bit on stage and then try to redo it but i'm definitely not a guy to sit down and say i'm going to write a trump joke or dallas cowboys it just doesn't happen it just all of a sudden it's me five minutes for the show i'm like ah that's that's it i just made one john kerry now this of a sudden hits me. Five minutes before the show, I'm like, ah, that's it. I just maybe went John Kerry. Now, this is a great joke.
Starting point is 00:43:47 John Kerry just stepped down, resigned. I didn't even know he was up. Right. I didn't either. And what's funny is I even say that in the show. I do a Trump. I said, where's Johnny? Where's John?
Starting point is 00:43:58 And he says, John Kerry's not. Why didn't no one tell him he was gone? And then I go, no, he did. He resigned. I have a big picture of him. Do you remember John Kerry? And they kind of collab. I said, he resigned.
Starting point is 00:44:08 His wife owns Heinz Ketchup. Did you know that? And then the crowd's like, and I said, no, I'm not making this shit up. Now, as a comic, this is how you write a joke. His wife owns Heinz Ketchup. So you imagine his wife trying to get him off at night. And it just fucking kills. Makes me hate the Steelers more.
Starting point is 00:44:27 It just kills. Right. And then you do that and they go crazy and then you add a song like a white wedding. You just make it deeper and deeper and then done with that you said you don't do, you just tap. You just tap. So there's like five jokes in one. But that's one example of a new one that i'm just i was just watching the
Starting point is 00:44:45 news and i just said john carrey's wife owns heinz ketchup there's got to be a joke there do you talk about your dad and your material at all yeah i talk about how i how you wanted me to but i when you took me to see gallagher and i took you to see gallagher yeah and i went and i wanted to be a comedian and i told him i wanted to be a comedian it's a really great story in the show where i tell him he takes me to it. And there was a line, you could meet him. So I said to my dad, oh, man. And my dad's like, what?
Starting point is 00:45:12 You want to go meet him? I said, because I'm dying to be a comedian. Somebody said, all right, go meet Gallagher. I'm going to go to the car and get a beer. I was going to say, he's getting in the beer line. He's got it in the car. I called back. I'm going to go get a beer.
Starting point is 00:45:25 So he didn't know my dad. He probably had two. So he goes back getting into beer line. He's got it in the car. I called back. I'm going to go get a beer. So he didn't know my dad. He probably had two. So he goes back to the beer line. Yeah. And then I do the whole thing about being Gallagher. Gallagher. And then I said, I want to be you. And then my dad says, you know, you knew it was never going to happen.
Starting point is 00:45:36 And he wants me to be a pilot. I said, you do this problem. It never happened. And then it's a really nice moment. And then I do the Gallagher montage of meeting him and telling him a joke. He said, you want to be a comedian you have to have jokes and i said you do and he said yeah i said oh well that makes it harder and he says you don't have any jokes i said i have one you got a logo bro i said why do you say that i should say i said i have a look but i haven't i haven't talked about in the show but i said i have one and i did do this in front of him
Starting point is 00:46:04 and how old are you at this time 14 oh hell yeah so he said what joke do you have it was in my pocket again it was already a prop so I pulled out a little I do in the show I said I saw him stand there and he's you have to have you have to have one joke and I said well I have one and I take it out and it's a little thing of visine so I said you know they say visine gets the red out and then I pour it in my hair and everybody laughs and I said and Gallagher's like that's funny and I said then I go like that he's like fuck you got two
Starting point is 00:46:31 but that punchline oh you got two is like just the kicker you know I said oh fuck he goes oh fuck you got one I said then I go like that he's like oh fuck you got two and then I show a picture of him and I at 14 so it validates the story and the thing. And the picture's priceless.
Starting point is 00:46:48 I have like, you know, this little red hair. I'm 14 years old, holding on to Gallagher. So it's a good story. And that's the kind of stuff I just started. As you asked me, bro, that kind of going into that, I started around that time, just started like incorporating things people maybe maybe want to know or hear about as opposed to just um the old carrot top you know you have to kind of rebrand yourself and people love something they don't expect they and people expect that's what they're going to oh we need the thing and all the crap i said yeah no i don't hit watermelons that's gallagher
Starting point is 00:47:23 i hit cantaloupe. You do the trampoline? Yeah. No, it's not that. Jesus. You get shit like that sometimes. Older people. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:34 Well, I did it with Gallagher. I had a great – this is the best clip ever. I mean, literally ever. He came to my show like four nights in a row at Luxor, and he sat on the side of the stage and just kind of stood there and he did never laugh once he just kind of stood there and watched which is probably normal for a comic too i don't know if i i mean i would probably laugh i'm the first i'm a little more of a laugher than me too but he but he he just just studying me and you
Starting point is 00:47:59 know he knows that i he's my mentor and i you know i really honestly when I first started I'd go to to ask questions and jokes and so he comes up I go I go home the third night I go back and my manager calls me and he says your buddy's here again so I say Geller yeah he's here again yeah fuck so we're driving in I'm like I have to think of an idea right so I'm like oh I have an idea so I go to think of an idea, right? So I'm like, oh, I have an idea. So I go to my warehouse. I said, don't we have a, like a hammer, a big hammer of some sort? And I don't know, I'm calling my guy, is there like a hammer in here somewhere? He's like, I think there's like an old mallet thing that we used to. So anyway, we find this big hammer thing. It looks like it could be a gallagher joke and i get it you have a stool down there right yeah i said all right let's go to the store and get a watermelon so we go to target we get a watermelon thank god they had watermelons i mean they were just well you have any watermelons i
Starting point is 00:48:57 think we have it's not really seasoned for what we have wonder anyway bringing this watermelon the hammer stool so i get down there and said, he doesn't know about this. So I said, Geller, I said, at the end, if you're cool with this, I have an idea. And the crowd will go apeshit. I'm going to reference the woman in the front row. Just randomly, I'll say to the woman, I hit the watermelon at the end. So just in case, you know, I could just to set it up. She's looking at me like, when are you going to hit the watermelon? I do it at the end. Wrong show. I don't hit the end. So just in case, you know, I could just to set it up. She's looking at me like,
Starting point is 00:49:25 when are you going to hit the watermelon? I do it at the end. The wrong show. I don't hit the, you know, I make a joke. I hit cantaloupe, but I'll do it at the end. So I've set it up. And now he's over on the side of the wings and I'm on this side. So I go off and I, you know, I know that please hand another handot Top. So I run out with the stool and the watermelon and I put it down on the stool and I go back with the hammer we had placed and I go to grab the hammer to hit it. And I, now I didn't, I told him I'm going to do something at the end. I want you to come out and like you take it and smash it or whatever. I don't see him over there. So I'm like, I guess he's not going to, he kept saying, I don't,
Starting point is 00:50:08 I don't know what the bit is. I said, the bit is you come out and the crowd goes apeshit. It's Gallagher. They're going to go crazy. And I just talked about being Gallagher, but you're actually going to come out and you're going to hit the watermelon. I got it.
Starting point is 00:50:20 So I'm like there, boom, I'm ready to go. I don't see him. Like, I guess I'm going to do this myself. So I go I look one more time over he comes running out grabs the watermelon pushes me it's all on video he pushes me I mean hard like three times violently across the stage I mean finally enough where he's just being I think being funny and he takes the watermelon he's like runs off the side with it.
Starting point is 00:50:45 Right. And I come back out another hand for Gallagher. My guy in the crowd's going crazy. And I come backstage and he's like, why, what do we, why did we do that? What does that mean? I said, listen to the crowd right now. He goes, but what's the purpose of it? I said, to have fun.
Starting point is 00:51:01 That did you not hear the crowd? How much love they fucking they're losing their mind. They just saw you. And it was funny. He goes, what was funny about it? I said, because I was going to hit a watermelon and I'm just going to steal your act. And you come out and you take your act back. It's funny.
Starting point is 00:51:16 In fact, what you did was funnier than what I was going to. I was actually going to try to hit it. And he just never, he said, well, don't ever show that to anybody. It's horrible. So I said, okay. Put Gallagher 2 is out there. Not anymore. But Gallagher 2. Not anymore.
Starting point is 00:51:34 I used to have a joke. Gallagher 2, audience nothing. That's good. Yeah, but no more Gallagher 2. But then Gallagher died. I started showing that clip to people. Look, obviously, I've never seen the clip because the whole time I'm thinking, man, hell yeah. It's funny.
Starting point is 00:51:52 He didn't have to do shit. Didn't have to sell a ticket. No, just come and do his fucking. Yeah. And the crowd was losing their mind. They just thought it was the best thing ever. That's what I thought you said was he's going to come grab it and he's going to do it. And then act like, don't you fucking. You know.
Starting point is 00:52:03 Yeah, no. You set it up at the top. I know you think this is what he did was was brilliant it was backseat funnier than him doing it probably because i really didn't want him to hit the watermelon because it was people would have they would have lost their minds but it worked out it worked out good that he just grabbed it but you know um can i talk to you about your dad passing you come talking about that is it something you knew was coming? Was it unexpected? Yeah, he was pretty unhealthy for most of his life. He smoked, you know, on a Vespa.
Starting point is 00:52:31 You know, my dad would smoke all the time. He'd ride a Vespa? I had a scooter one time and he went for a ride. And I said, are you smoking on the? Oh, that's how he would get. He came back on a jet ski with a cigarette. And I said, that's amazing. My dad's like, what?
Starting point is 00:52:44 I said, you went on a jet ski with a cigarette in him. And I said, that's amazing. My dad was like, what? I said, you went on a jet ski with a cigarette out there. So, yeah. Not a joke. So he wasn't in good health. And then finally he just, you know, he just got down to the, towards the end there. And, but yeah. And that's when I started a lot of the, too, a lot of the storytelling, I think. He would really appreciate it now because uh it's so
Starting point is 00:53:05 uh it's warm and it's fun and it's kind of showing a battle between like every anyone in the audience probably had that not necessarily battle it just had a had a struggle or a thing with their parents especially about what they want to do especially something dumb as being a stand-up comic or a rock star you know making me a rock star so you know and my dad also being the extreme nasa guy that was no nonsense guy to a guy you know someone like me who's you know really honestly was like my dad except when i got on stage i'm not but uh yeah at least he got to see it and like i I said, Pop Top, he loved it. How old was he when he passed away?
Starting point is 00:53:47 He was young, 76. Shit. He smoked. He had just bad health and didn't take care of himself. And your mom and dad were still forging with each other, though? Yeah. My mom is 83, and she's still rocking it. She's still rocking it.
Starting point is 00:54:04 Really good. Good health. All her wits about her. Does she? Yep. And when's the last time she saw you perform? I just, not two weeks ago. Does she live in Vegas? Lives in Vegas, yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:15 Oh, she does. She's a stripper. She's a stripper. Listen, there's definitely a market for an 83-year-old stripper these days. There is a market. There's something for everybody out there. I mean, she's aold stripper these days. There is a market. There's something for everybody out there. I mean, she's a good stripper, too. Donna and Dolores.
Starting point is 00:54:29 Donna and Dolores. Coming up next, Donna and Dolores. Double Ds. Right? The Double Ds. They come out and fuck, there it is. That's a show. It's a midnight show.
Starting point is 00:54:37 It's a midnight show. Oh, dude. This was great, man. Thank you for real. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on here and doing this. Thanks for having me on. This was fun.
Starting point is 00:54:46 It's been great to get to hear your real story. Yeah. So first time guest here, I ask everybody, after everything we've talked about, advice they would give to their 16-year-old self. What would you say to 16-year-old Carrot Top or Scott Thompson at that point? Yeah, that's a great question. Because I think I did most everything i think i did most everything right like i did most everything right i don't don't go looking back and thinking there's one i mean there's one thing i probably and but again it might not have helped but if i could go back when
Starting point is 00:55:15 i was when i was starting out or thinking about problems i started wanting to really honestly get into comedy older in college but when i was was in high school, I probably should have taken some theater classes, I think. Not that, like I said, I think I'm fine without it because my acting is amazing. But, you know, taking some theater classes and kind of being, but I don't know, maybe not doing that. Maybe that fact that I was a wrestler and I swam and I wasn't in theater. Maybe just that works. You know, I probably, and again, this is the only thing I think. When I got into comedy, I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina,
Starting point is 00:55:56 and that's where the hub of this guy owned like hundreds of comedy clubs. And so at the time, you know, I said, he said, manage you. And I said, well, you know i said he said manage you and i said well you know you know what can you get me i'll get you in tv and also i'll book you every night for the next i mean you literally will work every night for the next five years or ten years guaranteed let's go to my office and you're booked in nashville knacksville raleigh for the next five years so i was like hmm i mean none of my friends could get gigs i'm getting five guaranteed years of gigs so i said is it really that many oh yeah no i said okay and then i but then i got into the college thing and so i now couldn't even play these
Starting point is 00:56:36 things because i was doing colleges so i i would do colleges after colleges and then i'd do um the weekends i would try to do the clubs but then go back and do colleges and i i didn't stop working for i think five years i never took a day off i've just i was work a holic and colleges and theaters and then slipping in a regis and kathleen tonight show and do a movie but the only thing that i think sometimes that even though i did all that work with the grassroots way around it if i had gone to la and i'd stayed here and kind of did my thing who knows what you know i said no i'm not gonna do the la thing i've got my own thing i got who needs la i have charlotte like who says that and a lot of my friends are like, you don't live in LA. You live in Charlotte.
Starting point is 00:57:26 How does that work? I said, well, I just do all the same shit. I just fly to LA and do my goes, do my TV stuff and go back to Charlotte, do my shows on the road and go back to Charlotte. But if you stayed in LA, all the people that think, and people and opportunity and people that you'd meet, just imagine. And I'm like that maybe, but maybe not, maybe by living out here and struggling and trying to do it like everybody else might've been something that probably would have discouraged me.
Starting point is 00:57:53 Cause I had so much success. It's almost like the only thing about being a big, you know, shark in a little pond or that's what I was. I was a, I was in a little pond. I was the big shark in this little town. I was famous. I mean, I'm, you cannot not book me. I was the big shark in this little town. I was famous. I mean, you cannot not book me. I'm booked to go to L.A. and be a little small fish and maybe not even figure out a way to get it done. So in a sense, I think what I did was right.
Starting point is 00:58:19 But that one part of me thinks if I'd stayed here and pursued it and hung around Hollywood, maybe that people would have been, but I don't think that was my doing. I think my doing was doing it. I didn't want to go with the improv. That's great advice. I didn't want to go to the improv and sit there and wait till midnight to do my little stupid prop. So I want to go do an hour and a half at Notre Dame.
Starting point is 00:58:38 And so I would do that. You know, my friends at the improv doing five minute spot i'm doing an hour and a half of notre dame i'm like and you're getting paid and you're getting paid but it's also i feel like i'm already i'm like i'm i'd be i'm working in the big room i don't want to go to the back to you know i don't know but so yeah and the only other advice that i get well i say advice that i give young especially comics because i get a lot of of people naturally that walk up to me and say, I want to be a comedian. Do you have any advice?
Starting point is 00:59:09 And I always say, and you said it earlier. Yes, there's two things of advice. You have to find a voice on what you're going to do. Because the voice is the most important. Not the voice, but what you're going to talk about when they say your name. Ryan, what is going to be your shtick? What's going to be your delivery? What's going to be your energy?
Starting point is 00:59:31 What's going to be your style? We're going to talk about politics. You're going to talk about current events. And that's not something you just – you have to figure that out. So it takes time. So I say two things. Figure out where you can get a lot of time on stage a lot of time and the more time you get on stage you'll finally figure out your voice so those two things are the
Starting point is 00:59:53 most important the time and then then you find out what you're you're sticking with me i'm shit i've been doing this almost for 40 years next year and i'm still my voice is changing my shit's changing now i'm good i hear it yeah dude thank you um please plug anything you would like thanks bub yeah really appreciate that you're fun you're fun you're great yeah just we uh yeah we do some road shows coming up in uh in december in uh march and not many because we did the luxors we we're there every night. So we have a deluxe or we have a six nights a week for the next six years. And then who knows, you know, that's, what's fun about the show. Who knows?
Starting point is 01:00:32 I, you know, something could happen in an hour from now that I may be doing something different or in some, I've been a couple of movies that are out now. There's one with Matt Reif called don't suck. It's kind of the title's funny. Cause I'm sure they've already said it sucks. It's called don't suck it's kind of the title's funny because i'm sure they've already said it sucks it's called don't suck and i said you know if i was a writer i'd say it's too late you know they set you up right don't suck well that's too late well thank you man yeah um as always ryan sickler on all your social media ryan sickler.com
Starting point is 01:01:02 we'll talk to you all next week.

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