The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Josh Blue - HoneyBlue

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

My HoneyDew this week is comedian, Josh Blue! (Josh Blue: Broccoli, Delete, Sticky Change) Josh Highlights the Lowlights of Cerebral Palsy, and his son being involved in two school shootings. 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 [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to The HoneyDew Clips Channel http://bit.ly/ryansicklerclips SUBSCRIBE TO THE CRABFEAST PODCAST https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187 SPONSORS: Liquid I.V. -Get 20% off when you go to https://www.LiquidIV.com and use code HONEYDEW Athletic Greens -Go to https://www.athleticgreens.com/HONEYDEW to get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase

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I'm a single dad, and I had to go meet my daughter's mother's new boyfriend. Okay, yeah, ugh. Right? And, you know, that's never easy. But this is my life, all right? This can't be just some normal dude. This guy's got to be a cop, okay? Yeah.

But I live here, like you all. He can't just be a cop. This motherfucker's got to be California Highway Patrol. He's Chips, y'all. Chip, you understand? I grew up watching Chips. It's a core memory for me. And now I got to go meet punch. What are we talking about?

Hey guys, I just want to say thank you again for all the support for the special, um, continue to share it out there, like it, comment on it. It helps man. It really does. And so many of you have asked, am I going to sell this Lefty Son hoodie? And originally I wasn't. I was just using it to promote the special. But hey, they're up now on the website, RyanSickler.com. Lefty Son hoodies are available. Go get them on the website. Thank you for your support. You guys are the best. The Honeydew with ryan sickler welcome back to the honeycom ryan sickler on all your social media uh please go watch the special thank you for supporting it it's out now it's on my youtube called lefty son please go comment share it all that good stuff um and look, subscribe to the YouTube. It's another huge

way to help the show, to help everything. All right. And if you've got to have more than I'm telling you, you've got to check out the Patreon. I kept it at $5 a month for years. Now you get the honeydew a day early, you get it ad free and you get it no additional cost. It's called the honeydew with y'all. And I do this same show with y'all. That's what it is. It's that easy. And y'all got the wildest fucking stories. I say it every week.

We just talked to a kid who had a double lung transplant and married his donor's girlfriend, and they're about to have a kid. Talked to a kid in the Michigan State shooting who barely got away. We've talked to people who've died. We've talked to so many different honeydews out there. So check it out if you're so inclined. Also, getting back to being better health, we're going to start the tour up. It's called the Ryan Sickler Alive. Wait, no, wait, I fucked it up. Ryan Sickler Live and Alive Tour. We're starting in Fort Wayne, Indiana, May 26th and 27th. We're going to hit Tacoma June 23rd and 24th. I'm in Appleton, Wisconsin, July 7th and 8th and Tulsa, Oklahoma, July 21st and 22nd to start. All right. Now, also, wait, I do want to say this. If you're looking

for a new podcast, go check out my old podcast. It's called The Crab Feast. Did it with Jay Larson and every guest in the podcast world that you love has come on there and has great storytelling episodes. All right. So that's the biz. Now, you guys know what we do over here. We highlight the lowlights. I always say these are the stories behind the storytellers. I am very excited to have this guest on, who I scared the shit out of to start this show. For the first time here, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Josh Blue. Welcome to the Honeydew. What's up, bro?

You scared the fuck out of me, man. I'm not lying. Dude, I saw you jump out of the core, man. I was like, why are you yelling at me? How you just got here? Dude, thank you for being here, first of all. My pleasure, man. It's an honor.

You flew in for this. Yeah, man. That's crazy. Sometimes you got to go have fun and do things that, you know, I'm usually on the road on a Saturday like this, but this is great. Well, thank you for being here. And before we talk about whatever it is we're going to talk about, please plug, promote everything Josh Blue.

Yeah, my social media is just Josh Blue Comedy. It's basically my name and then what I do. And it's pretty simple. Josh Blue on all social media as well. All social media. And then if you can follow me on YouTube, that'd be great. And all that other bullshit. And check out your special.

Oh, yeah. So I just filmed my fifth hour special. And I'm not sure where it's coming out exactly, but it's coming. I just did my first in a year. You've got five already. And I have a CD, too. So I have six hours of recorded material, which is pretty fucking cool to say, man. It feels good.

And, you know just it's a fun process for sure well you've also we were talking you've said you've been road dogging for 20 years 20 years 20 years yeah and i do like 200 shows a year that's insane so i was like flying on average every three days usually which is bonkers bonkers but i love it i love making people laugh it feels fucking good really i mean i know you know that just it feels good and like laughing feels good but making people laugh has that same like endorphins and just like this is what's more fun than this right um well let's talk about everything because you're born with cerebral palsy. Yeah, we like to get that out of the way early.

Let's just get that out of the way early. But is that something that's genetic? Like, do any of your parents have that or any brothers and sisters? No, it's not genetic. It's basically like a brain injury at birth or lack of oxygen. I was actually born in Cameroon, West Africa. Really? And my parents were teaching over there.

And then I just didn't want to come out. So basically I was in utero for like 10 months. And then they finally had to do an emergency C-section. And it didn't go well. It didn't go quite as they had hoped and now i walk like this whoops that's a hell of a uh an explanation yeah and i was medevaced out of cameroon on my second day of life. I flew around the world to New York.

Holy shit. Are you serious? And I didn't have a passport. My dad carried me in a wicker basket, and they never even looked in the basket. Is that real? They smuggled me in. I didn't cry. I mean, they thought I was dead.

Is that baby dead? Yeah. All right. a scanner he's fine that baby's all right yeah you fine so you're born in africa yeah and then two days later you're into new york to get medical help medical is that where your family was from or is that just where the best hospitals the best closest thing that they could get to okay um i grew up in minnesota so but yeah and then my parents were there for two years and then i got medical attention i felt bad for my mom too because there's no phones in fucking cameroon so she just thought i was dead like lying up wait so just your dad took you yeah i know and a nurse because the c-section in africa is not i mean the baby's come and get the shovel it's an x-section yeah yeah it ain't no c yeah yeah yeah it's not good so my poor mom was like you know she couldn't she couldn't travel. She couldn't go.

And they sent like a nurse with my dad. And what year are you born? 78. So your mom's just laying there thinking her baby is dead. Right. And then I think two weeks later, my dad showed back up with little me. So what happened in New York? I don't know.

He gave me some vitamins. Made it work, and then you go back to Cameroon. Stabilized me, got me back, and then. And how long are you guys in Africa before your family comes? And are you an only child, by the way? No, I'm the youngest of four. Four, okay. Which I have an interesting theory about that.

So none of my other siblings have any disabilities that we talk about. Yeah, amen, bro. Amen. I'm lucky mine's on the outside. You know what I mean? Yeah, you're transparent with your shit. But I feel very fortunate, you know, like having cerebral palsy being the fourth child, I really think that was to my benefit.

Because if I was the first child, you know when you have a kid, you don't know what the fuck you're doing. You're overprotective. I see what you're saying. So there's, you know, they would have been so protective of me, I wouldn't have been able to grow and do what I'm able to do. Whereas being the fourth child, by the time they got to me, they're like, ah, fuck it, he's fine. He's fine.

We'll learn about Sarah. It's fine. It's no big deal. Whatever. So, yeah, so youngest of four. And so when does your family leave Africa and head back to the U.S.? How old are you? I think I was about one when we came back.

And then I went to elementary school in Minnesota. And then when I was 15, we moved to Senegal, West Africa, for a whole year. And I lived over there. What was it about Africa that your parents liked so much? So my dad speaks 13 languages. Are you serious? Yeah. Damn.

He's super genius. He's a language professor, taught French and Wolof. Do you know all the languages so i that he speaks yeah i can recite them but does he do any like chinese mandarin no no that is more romance languages and like he taught french and italian i was just about to say italian french spanish and then uh in senegal the native language is wolof and he speaks that i speak that as well do you really pretty pretty well actually do you blow minds over there i blow mine so hard i'll bet so hard i will tell me about a time where you just blew someone's mind like what

because you probably have a good accent and everything right yeah so i've been told that i was the best non-native speaker that people have ever heard so i'm not my dad's better grammatically and like maybe vocabulary but i can speak it like a motherfucker let's hear some it's just uh it's a very playful language your boy nanga def and What does that mean? Hey, yo, what are you doing? You want me to blow people's minds? You know when you go to New York City, the vendors that always have the knockoff watches? Yeah. Those are all Senegalese dudes. They're like the vendors of the world.

And any big city, they'll be trying to sell you a knockoff purse. And when I talk Wolof to them, they're like, who is this homeless guy speaking my language? This is fucking insane. Dude, I would love to watch that all day. Why aren't you doing that? Dude, it's so fun. And they, like, jump out of their skin.

I'll bet. And they hear me. And I'm, like I said, I'm good at it. I've watched this video of this really white dude who does that in China. But it's a very specific dialect and accent. And he'll sit there and speak English first. And then he'll just casually drop something off the menu. And you just see him stop like, what the?

And people are turning like, holy shit. It's like that. I feel like whatever my dad's gift of language, I have it. My siblings have it. We all speak at least three languages. I speak French pretty fluently as well. But, yeah. So Africa to me is really an influential time when i was i turned 16 in

senegal and like as you know that's a really pretty um yes what we're going to talk about you know that that time of your life was you're seeing the world and and like i was super down about having cerebral palsy when i was a kid and i went to senegal and i was like fuck it i'm so lucky to have what i have and it just it changed my perspective of wow what this was and that like even though i you know walk like this at least i got some fucking shoes you know i got you know food to eat like you just put it in it just clicked it in and ever since then i just was this happy-go-lucky dude who's just here to have fun and make people laugh and well you do some you travel i'm look i know what traveling's like it's a pain in the ass for everybody. And you say you're out doing 200 shows a year.

200. So, you know, you said to learn what this is, what is this? What's the hardest part about having cerebral palsy for you? Well, you know, what's really interesting with that question is this is all that I've ever known. So I don't know anything different. So, like, this is just my life that I deal with on a daily basis. And it's like, you know, I, you know, my fine motor skills are shit, bro. Like, you know, you want me to carry a pot of hot soup? Go fuck yourself.

You know, like, I'm going to pass on that. We're going to eat the soup over here. Yeah, this is going to be where that. We're going to eat the soup over here. Yeah. Yeah, this is going to be where it is. This is the soup station. I made the soup. You come get it if you want it. Shit.

It's self-serve here, motherfucker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pot is on the stove. Oh, shit. Okay, that's interesting. It's a great answer to that question yeah it sums up it sums it up you know and and again i've had this my whole life i've definitely come to terms with like what it is and i still get mad at myself for dropping something and and people like give

yourself a fucking break like it's not your fault that you. And I'm like, well, I'm pretty high too, though. My first comedy, like, official show I did in college and I put flyers all over it. It said, it's not the palsy, it's the pot. That's great. That's great.'s great my professor was like we know all right so um it's all you've known your whole life um what's your first job

my first job i worked uh at a camp i was a camp counselor at a really primitive camp in, like, northern Minnesota. It was a camp for inner-city youth, and I actually attended the camp. Oh, okay. And it was, you know, I think my parents just didn't know what the fuck to do with me during the summer. They're like, hey, go to this ghetto camp. And it was great. I fit right in that motherfucker, and I went to camp two years in a row. And then they're like, you need to come work for us.

So then that was my first job. And, you know, can you imagine inner city youth come in and I'm their counselor? I'm like, hi, I'm Chopsaw. Nice to meet you. Are you going to be my canoe buddy? They're like, you want me to get in a boat with this motherfucker? I can get in a boat with this dude. If I'm the guy taking you canoeing for three days.

Three days. Three days. Not just around the lake. No, no, no, no. Two nights. It's a canoe trip. Yeah, we're going like 40 miles on the river. Holy shit.

And you're camping out overnight and stuff? Yeah, man. And you're by yourself? So there's me and a counselor and an assistant counselor. With how many kids? Eight. Okay. That's a lot of kids.

That's a good amount of kids. How many canoes? It was four canoes. All right. It could be more, like up to 12, which is a lot of fucking kids to keep track of but because they don't know shit about them woods i would be like you know it's getting dark out the wolves are coming out better get in your tent oh shit i'm getting the tent like it's gonna stop a pack of wolves um the question i want to ask you is this basically what's it like when people treat you differently because you have cerebral palsy and

it's a two-part question and have you ever had someone in your life that didn't and you were like fuck thank you thank you for just treating me like a fucking regular person like I am. Yeah, I mean, the first part of the question, I mean, it's annoying as hell to have people just see the way you move and then just assume that you're also mentally disabled. Or, I mean, people often think I'm like a crazy homeless person. And I'm dressed nicely, but people still will, like, give me a wide berth on the sidewalk and shit. And I'm like, I can see. I can see you, motherfucker.

I can see you move. What was that joke? I said, I'll be coming down the street and I say, chivalry isn't dead because when I see a couple walking down the street towards me, the man will move his lady to the safe side. And I'm like, there ain't no safe side. I'm going to get your lady. But that's real.

That's stuff they deal with. And, I mean, I can't count the number of times I've been 86 from a bar before I've even had one drink. People be like, get the fuck out of here. You're wasted. And I mean, it's great because my friends will be like, actually, he has cerebral palsy. And then they're like, I'm so sorry. Here's a free beer. That's how I drink my way through most events it's just like guilting people into guilting them yeah um but that that stuff is like

i can see it i get it it's a bar situation i look something's obviously wrong uh you'd assume that it's more of things like i've gone into hotels that i was staying at and i went i was waiting for my ride and the manager came up and was like what are you doing in here i'm like waiting for my ride dude he's like get the fuck out of here and he made me get out of the hotel and i was like i'm a guest here and i showed him my room key and he was still like get the fuck out like like i had found a room key in the right yeah right yeah yeah i mean i i almost sued those people yeah it's like fuck yeah like you asshole i'm clearly he even looked at the lady at the desk like is he staying here and she he staying here? And she was like, yes.

And he still was like, get up. It was insane. So there's that kind of things where it's more about the visual. When I get mad, more is the mental stuff. So my biggest thing, okay, in this comedy career right people still only see me as the cerebral palsy comic and it's i'm a comedian that happens to have cerebral palsy and i talk about it because this is what i know yeah like and people talk about their marriages their fucking upbringings all that race their right body size sexual preference all that so i'm doing the same

thing and for some reason everyone's like you talk too much about that i'm like this is what i fucking know i tried to do it from a Southern Belle point of view, but that didn't work. Dear Dara, haven't been right since Mr. Earl left. Mr. Earl. Who tells you that? I've gotten it. Well, okay. So this is like just over the years.

Like, I mean, Netflix have told me that. Like, all right, how about this? So the money. Hold on. Netflix told you that you talk too much about having cerebral palsy. Man, fuck Netflix. Fuck Netflix. For real. If any one of those people, excuse me, were seven foot tall, they'd be talking about what life is like to be

eight feet tall or nine feet tall if they were missing their legs they'd be talking about how their life is missing legs and the thing is i look at it like if you have that point of view of me you're not watching my show because yes it comes from a vessel that is disabled, but I'm talking about other shit in this body. You know, it's not just like, oh, look at this. Yeah. It's real shit that happens day to day. All right, so this one is the one that gets me the most fired up

and angry about this business. All right, so I had never been to the montreal festival like everybody that was on last comic went to the festival and they didn't invite me and they didn't invite me they finally invited me in 2019 i think and you know i won last comic in 06 i know i can't believe it's been that long we were talking about it before it is like yeah i thought it was like 10 years ago yeah and they finally invited me to the thing i was so ecstatic and my agent was there and i was sitting with her i was like so why did it did it take this long to get me into this festival? And she said, their response was, we just don't know where he would fit into our festival.

And I'm like, what does that even, like people that like to laugh? I don't, and then she basically was like, he opens for Ron White. He opens for Dave Chappelle. Like the two huge names that like, like this guy enough to open for him. And they finally got me in and I heard that. I was like,

I'm going to show you where I fucking fit in. Yeah. And I did the, um, William H. Macy gala. And, uh, I fucking fit in. Yeah. And I did the William H. Macy gala. And I got a standing ovation. Did you?

On my 10-minute set. Fuck yeah, dude. And I came off stage. And I'm like, that's where I fucking fit in. And then a big wig from the festival comes over. And he goes, pats me on the head and goes, you're so courageous. And I. Do you know who it was?

Tell me after. I don't. I don't know. But I almost punched this old man in his fucking face. And I'm like, I get goosebumps. I get like, I'm like, even talking about this, I get so fucking enraged. And I mean.

Was anyone there that heard that? What did you say? What did you do? I physically stopped myself from pushing an old man down. Did you say anything? And I walked the fuck away. And I was like so courageous. And it was in that moment or like since processing that, I'm like,

it was in that moment or like since processing that i'm like this business is never gonna see me as a comedian that just got a standing ovation in a big theater but here's the thing about it the business doesn't need to anymore right the people need to that's it these people right here these fans these great people and the people know that that's my fans come on applauded that fucking clown didn't right but it just made me realize that anything i want to do in this business is gonna have to be me doing it i'm not waiting for them to go okay no but yeah it doesn't happen for most of most people it doesn't i'm telling you bro every time now that i film a special or have something big to do i think about that moment in my head right before i do it because i get a fucking i'm gonna show you i would fire me to fuck i'm gonna start thinking about that every time i do something i'm gonna start thinking

about that patting you on your wrist alone patting you on the head, motherfucker. Patting you on the head. Break your wrist. Alone, patting you on the head. I'm a grown fucking man. What are you doing? So courageous. Blood boil. So mad. So those are the moments in my life that I still really feel the impact of being disabled. feel the impact of being disabled and like i i'm very happy-go-lucky but then when those things happen it's just such a reality check to back the life and shit like that and again i do live this really weird dual life where i'm a pretty famous comedian

walking down the street and people stop me for that and then two steps later like get away from me you're drunk ass exactly it's crazy man all right so um i want to talk more about this because you're a parent you're a dad dad and what age do you get um did you get married first i did well one of them was on the way okay yeah so um how do you and your your wife at the time meet uh i was dating her friend nah i pulled the old switcheroo and then you started dating her yeah and then married her yep because i got her pregnant first that's why we got married i didn't really i shouldn't have got married no no why i think it's a weird uh union of

an idea and kind of arcane i agree it is it is an archaic fucking that shit made more sense when you like lived on the prairie and there wasn't another person in 50 miles. I guess I'm with you. Yeah, so when we had two kids, I loved being a dad. I actually like babies, man. I like little cute-ass babies. I make people nervous as hell. They're like, hey, didn't everybody tell you not to shake a baby?

I'm like, I'm just holding them. They're like, don't tell me how to raise my kids. Holding two kids at the same time. Somebody arrest this motherfucker. That's terrible. Oh, shit. somebody arrest this motherfucker alright talk to me about the challenges of being a dad with cerebral palsy like do you drive I don't so that's number one

challenge that's a big challenge I don't drive you know obviously I rely on others to help get them to school and all that shit. And then, again, it's interesting because this is all that my kids have ever known. Just like this is all I've ever known. So it's just how daddy does it. Or I was really active in, and like you fucking do it like make the kids do it and so now they work for me so that's right how old are they now 15 and my daughter's

almost 13 definitely old enough to be yeah yeah so but they've been doing shit for me since they were two. Like, you go get that. No, the Budweiser. Budweiser. Read it. Yeah, so, again, you know, we're not eating soup at the table unless they carry it. No, so, yeah, I mean, cooking, I cook. I do everything. I do the laundry.

I do it all. But I definitely make them help. Yeah, good. Yeah, but driving is the biggest issue I have. I wanted to talk to you about this, too, because it's something very interesting. You did play sports and stuff, and you were a soccer player? Yeah, so I was on the U.S. Paralympic team for eight years. That's fucking wild, man. Eight countries playing soccer for the

u.s how did we do well you suck yeah y'all out there getting your ass kicked we got fucked up bro it was bad it was so bad dude who's the best paralympic uh team country at the time it was uh russia or ukraine wow okay i would say I would have thought South America and Brazil. Well, Brazil was up there, but the Russians were like mechanical palsy machines. Mechanical palsy machines. I've never seen it, man. They're that good? We lost to them 11 to 1.

And the one was them scoring on their own goal. We got borders shooting on their goalie. Let's take some real shots. They're that good. I'm telling you, one time, I think it was in the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. I was on the field. I was trying

to cover this dude. He was running down the right wing and he got a ball over his shoulder like somebody just booted it and he one time kicked it into the back of our goal and i was like nice shot man like a high five in the fucking other team coach does not like that you do that you know we we got smoked bro they're so good but it was such an amazing experience and i also think that was a really pivotal point in my life of being comfortable in this body and like getting to hang out with other physically disabled dudes that have been through some of the same bullshit and and also you're you're a team you know literally you're

outside of the cerebral palsy, you're also a team. You're coming together like that. So that's fucking great. So I think that really helped me with my comedy, because those two things were taken off at the same time. Like, within one month, I started, like, getting some traction in comedy. And then all of a sudden, I joined the national team. It was like, within one month, I was like, woo-hoo! Were you a soccer player like all

your life i honestly i've never been on a team before that nah that's the first time you played organized soccer was for the goddamn olympic team um so i tried out and i mean i tried out in junior high and they fucking cut me and it broke my heart and like all i gotta say is like in junior high and they fucking cut me and it broke my heart. And like, all I got to say is like in junior high, let me come to practice. You know what I mean? You don't need to junior. Yeah.

Everyone should play in junior high. You don't need to cut me. Let me at least come. And, and so that kind of discouraged me from ever like trying out for the college team or anything, but I always brought a soccer ball with me everywhere I went over, just juggle and dribble it.

And I just got really good on the ball. And then I, I just found out, I didn't even know the Paralympics were a thing. And then. So how, yeah, how do you,

what, what is it? What is it involved to try out for them? Basically, this girl gave me a email of the coach. She saw me juggling. She had palsy. She's a swimmer.

And she goes, you know there's a soccer team for you, right? And I was like, no, what are you talking about? She goes, yeah. And she had the coach's email on like a gum wrapper. And I was so nervous to email him. I carried it around for like three months before I got the balls to just do it. Is that right? I said, and the email was, my name is Josh Blue.

I'm 22 years old. I have cerebral palsy, and I'm a damn good soccer player. And he wrote back, nice to meet you, Josh Blue. Well, I was looking for a damn good soccer player. Josh Blue where I was looking for a damn good soccer player. And then two weeks later, I'm on a plane to D.C. to their, it was just one of their camps, but it was a tryout for me. And ever since then, I was either a starter or the first sub in.

So I was, my endurance is shit because I'm a partier. But I bring, like, the morale up when i come on i'm i play soccer with my elbows you know like you come by me i'm gonna fucking sting you does the coach also have cerebral palsy no he's just a fuck witch how do we feel about that um it was fine he was actually uh there was two different coaches we went through but the the one i had longest was actually the assistant coach for the women's national team oh okay back in the day so he was a real deal legit yeah real deal level coach he's a real prick but liquid ivy is the category winning hydration brand fueling your well-being and their hydration multiplier as the one product you're missing in your daily routine. In just one stick, you're getting five essential vitamins and two times faster hydration than water alone. Use it first thing in the morning.

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Let's get back to the dude. All right. I want to ask you this because you said the Russians were like palsy robots or whatever. Fastest dude with cerebral palsy you've seen. And like, I mean, with just hauling ass. Oh, man. and like, I mean, with just hauling ass. Oh, man.

My buddy, like long distance wise, he can do like a five minute mile. Are you? Oh, my God. He's insane, dude. That's like long distance. I was one of the fastest people on the team for. Like the 40? 15 yards.

15? Yeah, I got it. I got real fast 15. That's just a burst. I got a quick burst. That's all I need because I was a cherry picker, you know? No offside. So, like, I was always able to get to the ball.

Like, you take a shot and it squirts out. I'll just get to it first. But much after that, I'm like, I was always able to get to the ball. Like, you take a shot and it squirts out. I'll just get to it first. But much after that, I'm like, I'm out. There's a guy on my team named Martel. I mean, the way he walked, his feet were, like, pigeon-toed in so far. And you're like, there's no way this guy can play soccer. He was a fucking phenom. I've never seen no shit like that. He's like doing bicycle kicks and shit.

I'm like, damn. When he came on the team, I was like, well, I guess I'm out. There goes my spot. He took my spot for sure. And they were not wrong to give it to him. He's fucking good. And then the captain of the team, Josh McKinney, he was my best friend on the team. He has the most goals in international play of any U.S. men's team.

Damn, is that right? He's like 98 or something, which is a lot of fucking goals in international play. All right, you were eight years, you said, on the team? So in all the eight years, tell me, wherever it was, whatever country, who's the best player you remember, period, just like Jesus Christ. Is there a guy you think that could play, not in a national team or whatever, but with people who don't have cerebral palsy? I mean, most of my teammates, we could hang with non-palsy people.

I played with that. I'm telling you, that guy Martel, dude, he was the best national athlete. And he'd get in goal, and you couldn't score on the fucking guy either. But he could also kick the shit out of a ball. He had accuracy. He had touch. He could juke you out. You're like, your feet are on backwards like

your feet are all back i think that's how he did it i like something doesn't look right here pam he's gone like oh fuck his feet your shoes are on top. I'm for real, man. He was fucking good. No, there's some really amazing players out there that you're like, I mean, there's this one Brazilian dude. He must have had a stroke or something because his right side was, like,

pretty puny, but his left side was like the incredible Hulk. It was weird as shit. He had the biggest limp in his run, and when he would kick the ball with his Hulk leg, it was scary. I would just get out of the way of the ball like, I'm the good, you go ahead and score. It's amazing the different levels of like just what people can overcome honestly also i'm sitting here thinking about it because it's interesting like each person has something inside them whether it's god-given ability for athletics

or music or whatever right and you're telling me cerebral palsy it's not a genetic thing it's because something happens yeah so this person who's about to come out and be born already has this inherent god-given talent for whatever it is but then cerebral palsy makes it way more difficult yeah so this guy you're telling me about this athlete this dude if if he didn't have cerebral palsy it sounds like he probably could play on the actual national team yeah i i believe that i mean he was fucking it's an interesting fucking i've never even there's a weird weird mind conundrum we're like wait what how does this work again when you saw the guy walking you're like there's no way this guy could play soccer and he's so good so good uh it's a it's really interesting to see disabled sport i think a lot of times it doesn't get the credit that it deserves because i'm like yeah anybody can run with two legs not everybody unfortunately some people don't know how to do it still.

You're like, come on, man. Come on. You're making us look bad, bro. Oh, yeah. But I've always been an athlete. I took great pride in humiliating able-bodied people in sport. I used to play street football as a kid. That was my jam. And I was one of the best wide receivers in the neighborhood.

Were you? Because I was fast as shit. And I just like, I just get this. At 15 yards and gone. I'm at 15, man. Hit me. I'm at 15. I'm out of here.

I'm done. And I would juke the shit out of kids. And that was also the fun thing. Like, if any new kids would come to the neighborhood and they'd be playing with us, they'd be like, why did you pick that guy first? They're like, you'll see. Five touchdowns later, I'm like high stepping into the end zone. Like, ha-ha.

Mossing them out there. We can't cover this palsy kid, man. All right. I want to switch gears for a second because I also want to ask. I saw our little list up here. The hotel incident in Montreal. Is that what the dude's saying? You're so courageous?

Yeah, the Montreal thing. Yeah, but the hotel was just the guy kicking me out. Oh, yeah, throwing you out. Yeah. I just want to make sure we got that because what I do want to talk about is this is, I mean, look, we record these podcasts ahead of time, obviously, just so the fans know, and this just happened. So your son was involved in the the most recent denver school shooting

yep east high school it happened last wednesday that's where he right now we're recording on a saturday so this was literally what three four days ago this happened so we get the you know text message school's in lockdown and then turn on the news and it's like shooting at the school. The kid shot two deans that were conducting a pat down on the child. And then he produced a gun, shot them both and then fled. And then there was a, you know, there was manhunt for the kid and he was found dead the next day. He killed himself up in the mountains. So it's really, I mean, I don't know what the fuck to do, man. Like, what are we doing here?

What is happening? Well, I just saw that reporter, and it was her son that was coming up right there at the time. And Kirsten, she said her husband knows one of the deans uh he's in critical condition right now yeah it's fucking insane like and i just saw this video i don't know where it was maybe in alabama school or something but it's the it's a bulletproof like barrier and it's over in the corner it's like a two wall thing that goes and the teacher has to grab it the kids get it pulled out and then the kids all have to i'm like what the fuck what are we doing i mean i appreciate the effort but there's got to be something that

can prevent you needing that and was this kid a student at that school he was a student of the school and he already for whatever reason in order for him to come into school, he had to get a pat down every day. Which, I have questions on that alone. Like, wait, why are we giving him a chance if he's already got to that level? And then this is what happens. And then less than a month before that, there was another shooting at the same school. Less than a month? And a kid was sitting in his car at lunch break.

Car pulled up, shot him, drove away. They're still at large, I believe. So they don't even know if they were actual students of the school or anything? And then the kid was in a coma for two weeks, and then he died. And then this happened a week late. So a week after this poor kid dies from the last school shooting, you have another school shooting. And the kids walked out of school the day of his death, did a march to the Capitol, all that. And then the next week this happens again.

So I'm at a point where it's just like, what is going to be done about this? Why are we letting this happen in our society to our fucking children of all things? I don't. At the place they're supposed to be. These kids aren't out doing shit that's wrong or fuck. They're at school. Right. And they're also sitting ducks.

I just on my Patreon, I was telling you, I talked to a guy who just was in the Michigan State shooting. That was just I mean, that was only a few weeks ago around Valentine's Day. That was and he's laying behind a podium watching the wood chips fly off. And he's like, this is going to be how I die. And two kids, two girls, I think he said in his class did die. So it's just happening. happening at such a rapid pace. And now when people say, you know, such and such school shooting, people's response is, which one is that? Because there's so fucking many of them.

Well, I think this is the thing that ultimately disturbed me the most about this is that my son seems fine, which is great. But the fact that he's so numb to this happening, he's not even like, he's like, yeah. I ask him, I was like, hey, do you want to be homeschooled? Do you want to go to a private school? He's like, no, I don't. I want to go to a private school he's like no i don't i want to stay here and like i love that in him but i'm also like this isn't affecting you like what

it's just too many of these it's just has there been a meeting from the with the school yet or anything where the parents can like a town hall where the parents can come in and just fucking rip them alive now yeah Yeah, I'm sure. But, I mean, again, what's that going to do? They said they're going to have two police officers at every school now. Two? Two. At every entrance?

Right. Or just two at the whole fucking school? Again, a gun is a gun. It shoots very fast. That's right. So, I don't know. I mean, it's too little too late, you know. It's just, and again, you hear about this every day,

but then when it happens at your kid's school, that fucking makes you angry and makes you want change. What are we going gonna do about that there's no our politicians they're never gonna make this change i don't know what makes me want to shoot somebody i mean i you know you know how it works until someone in power has it touch them right until it affects them personally then shit doesn't get done if god forbid that happens to the president's son or anybody like in power like that then shit will start to change you know but it's just happening to regular people, and what are we going to do?

Yeah, it's not our problem. Right, not our problem. We're over here. Anyway, it's a process now. It's like making sure my son is mentally okay after that because you can also say you're okay and not be okay. Yeah. But now my daughter is supposed to go to that school in a couple years, mentally okay after that because you can also say you're okay and not be okay so yeah you know but now my daughter is supposed to go to that school in a couple years and it was a great

school it's it's one of the best schools in colorado and that's happening there so uh i don't know it's the same like i can't i'm just trying to put my head in your son's uh place like imagine being in fucking what is he 10th grade 15 no ninth grade freshman and two fucking one's enough to traumatize you forever two in not ninth grade and then my senior year fucking back to back within a month within a month. Within a month. Right. But it just, and then the other thing is like, I say we do take them out of school. Well, do we also not go to movie theaters or grocery stores or malls or because it's happening every fucking place.

You can't go outside without, is that person got a gun? Is that person, you know'm as you see i'm already a jumpy motherfucker yeah you did get a little excited yeah that's a palsy thing it's just we have wicked startle reflex oh really yeah so but you get a gun involved i'll fly out the roof uh so you you are divorced i'm divorced and you have 50 you have you have split custody 50 so how um how do you manage that with the road and stuff you go home you see the kids so we made it pretty cool so three weeks a month i have them sunday through wednesday and then i can travel Thursday through Sunday.

Okay. And then one week a month I have them for the whole week. So I take a week off the road and hang out with the kids. Yeah. Unless something better comes up. Well, you said you love being a dad.

I do, man. What do you love about it? I've always wanted to be a dad. You did? Yeah. What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a dad. when I was a kid what do you want to be when you grow up I want to be a dad I was never sure about the husband part

again babies were my jam I just loved that age obviously this is teenage years coming with some real shit to to parent on but my kids are great funny engaging with some real shit to parent on. But my kids are great, funny, engaging human beings that can talk to adults, look them in the eye.

I'm proud of that shit. I made two little smart, funny assholes. Go for you, dude. Yeah, they're good. My daughter's sense of humor is evil, bro. She's something yeah I had a buddy come over it was a triple amputee he's a vet what's what is what is the triple amputee what is he missing both legs above the knee and then one arm and then he's out like a couple fingers on the other hand he came over as a comedian my daughter i mean we had to carry him in the house put his

wheelchair down your daughter did that no no no okay the other comedian and then my daughter comes in the room when he's there and she looks him up and down. She goes, finally, someone I'm taller than. No. Oh, my God. Oh, holy shit. Holy shit, dude. Damn it. Oh, hell yeah, man.

This purple heart veteran. Yeah, dude, seen some shit. Just shit all over him. Just shit all over him. He served our country so well. He literally gave so much. Yes, he gave almost all of it. Dude, that's good.

Finally an adult I'm taller than. Oh, shit. finally an adult i'm taller than all right so what age do you start doing comedy and why what what got you into comedy were you always a comedy fan as well listening to different comedians or did you just go say fuck it and try it so i i always loved laughing and loved stand-up. I felt like you don't know that's a real thing that you can do as a kid. You just see people and you're like, wow, that's fucking amazing. I remember stealing an Eddie Murphy cassette tape from my buddy's brother and giggling uncontrollably and not even really getting the jokes. He just said rubber penis, and I was like, oh. I was just giggling so hard and and i just loved stand-up and like i mean this

is a hard one but i i remember watching fucking bill cosby right and our teacher put it on in high school class the bill cosby himself and And I remember watching it, and for some reason, I was just like, I could do that. And, like, not many people watch an amazing comedian and just go, yeah, I could do that. And I just, it was in my head since that. And then I went to a really liberal arts college called the Evergreen State College in Washington.

And you can create your own courses and majors and i actually studied stand-up my senior year i got credit for it and um never look back so yeah i just uh i've always been quick quick-witted and had the impeccable timing and where'd you uh do your first spot in minnesota when you were in minnesota no i mean the first spots were on the campus of the university or the college but then my first club i played was the tacoma underground it was like back in the day and um so again i'll give you a taste of it so before you know my first set they gave me two minutes i met the host for like one second before he asked me what my intro was and he goes on and it turns out he's a cop comic which is not a thing and all his jokes were like, I pulled the guy over

and then I hit him in the head with my billy club. Like, what? It's not funny? And then he did his set and then he said, okay, are you ready for our first comedian? He's a very special guy. He's a good friend of

mine. Please welcome Josh Blue. And I went up, up i was like i don't know that motherfucker but that was my instant like first taste of like this condescending fucking guy like he's a special guy yeah he's a good friend of mine like don't talk down to me you know have you gotten a lot of that in comedy for sure yeah and you know here's the thing i get the most and i actually really enjoy it is like i'll come into a room and you don't know me like last night there was a lot of comics at the at the club that didn't know me and i'm like super friendly i'm like a golden retriever i want to talk to everybody say

hello get to know you a little bit i'm the opposite i'm the opposite yeah i just like doing it it's fun and and these people wouldn't even get like look at me i'm like hey how's it going i try to shake their hand and like just treating me like some and then i went on and fucking murdered and then they come up like hey hey, nice to meet you. I'm like, fuck off. You were a dick to me beforehand. I'm like, why is it now that you see that I'm better than you at this? I don't know.

I don't like that kind of shit. It really irks me. Because I've got that my whole career. Like, people just assume. Promoters and club managers and all that shit, too. But then I go do it, and they're like, oh, whoops. Whoops, yeah. Just go slay.

I fucking love it. I love slaying, man. Do most people treat you differently at first, and then you crush, and then they switch gears? I mean, at this point, I have enough clout and credit that that like you know anywhere i'm going is i sold out the theater forum so they're like okay this guy's gotta be and you know i'm represented well so they weed out most of the bullshit but some still gets through um i wanted to ask you about your parents growing up and i know you said

you're the youngest uh and you have cerebral palsy but what did they did they try to raise you in a way where they didn't treat you any differently than your other siblings just so you got used to real fucking life that was it they just treated me like another just another kid like they my mom said this like yeah you had um some needs that the other kids didn't have but it was like we're taking her to soccer practice and you to therapy it's just like the thing we did for you it wasn't like and they never made it a big deal and they and like you know they made me do chores and all that shit but i mean you could ask my siblings they're like you didn't do shit but that's but that's because i was the youngest and good at like not doing anything right didn't have anything to do with the palsy they're like you

could do this i'm like i could but i'm not going to you know. So they definitely just tried to make it as normal as possible. But also I was the first, one of the first disabled kids to go through the public school system mainstream. Like I was in special ed until the fourth grade. And like, you know, I and and special ed back then they just clump us all together so you'd be with the down syndrome kid and then the the blind kid and they'd kind of treat us all the same but then we got to fourth grade me and my buddy nick who had palsy and they're like you know we gotta let these guys go. We got to mainstream these.

Straight A's. Yeah, yeah. And then they let us out into general pop. And we went, you know, but there was a lot of learning for the teachers because all of a sudden these teachers that have taught a certain way their whole career, now we come in and we need to be we need different uh you know we could still do the work but we got to the answer in a different route if that makes sense so i just remember my mom having to go to school and

i mean i i bet she made a lot of my teachers cry. Like, just like, listen, just chew them out. Like, fucking hell. Like, he's smart. He's smarter than the other kids. Just he can't write. He can't. My writing is shit. So I actually had to have a scribe.

This is super interesting. So like through elementary school, they just had another kid right for me so no so basically we just take the test together and then i'd be like what do you think you know like are you serious so then in junior high they got me uh my own scribe her name was rosa marie daniels is she like an older a high school kid or college kid or something or middle age middle age black woman from mississippi that's the lady that's writing for you oh that's awesome i went from junior high through high school with with miss daniels it was like going to school with my big black mom it was insane bro she would just sit right next to you she's sitting in the desk in

the desk next to me oh that's a real big i didn't even know that was a job dude it was insane it and she just like she's going to church every day like big hats and hats in the school stand it up nobody fuck with me man like we're not dressed for that guy that is too much did was she friendly did you grow uh did you have a relationship with her sweet lady she ever reach out to you when when you got on we we actually talk on instagram for real to this day hell yeah all right yeah great woman did you ever ask her what do you think and she's like oh yeah she would help she would dude i don't know anything i don't know shit she knows everything man i remember one time the teacher moved us into his office because i couldn't be doing the answers in front of the one who's taking the exam

so he put us in the office and the fucking answer key was on the desk and I was like, is it B? And she's like, B. She totally helped me. I was hilarious. I just think she was doing it because

she's like, I can't have this guy repeat a grade. I can't work with him anymore. Man, she was great. I remember too, like, I can't have this guy repeat a grade. I can't work with him anymore. Man, she was great. I remember, too, like, looking back on this, I'm like, oh, I get it now. My teachers were scared of her. Like, I remember one time she was painting her fingernails in class. You know how bad that smells? Yeah, yeah.

The teacher came. He was like, who's painting their fingernails? Who's doing it? And then he saw her and he was like. And he went and sat on his desk. Just a proud, amazing woman. Like, just held herself strong. And, like, I remember one time she was tapping her nails on the desk.

And I was like, are you bored? And she goes, yeah, I already went to high school. Yeah, good boy. And I was like, oh, fuck, you're right. This must be so boring following my dumb ass around. Pretty cool. That is pretty cool, dude. I attribute a lot of my success to her, too.

Do you? Just because it was like having a very proper religious person on your shoulder and making sure you're not being she kept you in line yeah she didn't just help with school right like yeah you know and like any other kid but that's the thing i was i always had the timing my timings always been good so i'll just wait for it in class for the teacher to say something and i'll just drop something in and make all the kids laugh and the teachers laugh you make her laugh too sometimes yeah she was a tough audience now what was she what if you're out sick that day do you have to give her a heads up so she doesn't show up oh yeah for sure we'd tell her but then also like

she would be out sick some days so those would be like days off well in school still because i'm like well i'm sorry i can't do anything i'm sorry i would but i just can't write dude listen this has been a great episode um thank you very much for coming on here thanks for having me dude i enjoy this well we're i'm gonna ask you one last question and it really lines up because you said 16 was a very pivotal time for you because i think you back in senegal then right so what advice would you give to your 16 year old self i think it was just like it's gonna be okay i think i had so many worries about like a girl's gonna like me because of the way I walk

and like that was a lot of anxiety and I just I think if I was 16 and I knew like listen dude it's gonna work out the way it's supposed to and like don't stress that shit it would have saved me a lot of anxiety through those years um

yeah i just it's gonna work out that's great dude thank you for doing this seriously my pleasure man um promote everything again your special all of it yeah just josh blue comedy all social media instagram twitter blah blah blah i hate this shit. And a YouTube channel. And then also I have edibles in Colorado. So it's in Colorado and Missouri now. So in over 100 dispensaries throughout the country, it's called Josh Blue's Dream. That's in Colorado is Josh Blue's Dream.

And then in Missouri it's called Josh Blue's's dream that's in colorado's josh blue's dream and then in missouri it's called josh blue's marijuana dream all right and uh they're edible suckers four flavors i recommend the sour pineapple you got a honeydew one coming oh yeah we should i'll talk to the boys about it all right thank you again uh as always ryan sickler on all social media ryan sickler.com. We'll talk to you all next week.