The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Lewis Black - HoneyBlack

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

My HoneyDew this week is comedian Lewis Black! (Lewis Black’s Rantcast) Lewis Highlights the Lowlights of the deaths of his brother, father, and mother. 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] CATCH ME ON TOUR https://www.ryansickler.com/tour December 8th & 9th: San Francisco, CA 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: Factor -Head to https://www.FactorMeals.com/HONEYDEW50 and use code HONEYDEW50 to get 50% off! Mindbloom -Get $100 off your first six sessions when you go to https://www.Mindbloom.com/podcast/honeydew

San Francisco. I'll be back Friday, December 8th and Saturday, December 9th at Cobb's Comedy Club. It's the last stop of the Live and Alive tour for 2023. Get your tickets at ryansickler.com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the honeydew, y'all. We are over here doing it in the Nightpan Studios. I am Ryan Sickler, ryansickler.com. Ryan Sickler on all your social media. I'm going to start this episode like I start every episode by saying thank you. Thank you for supporting this show.

Thank you for subscribing to this show. I can't thank you all enough for your support. It's wild to me. I was just sitting here talking to our guest about where comedy is and how long we've been doing this and that. So I appreciate you. And if you've got to have more,

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 y'all have the craziest stories we're i don't know how many hundreds episodes in at this point and no one has stories like you it's five bucks a month that's it there's no tears nothing go check it out and if you're looking for a new podcast to listen to go listen to my old podcast it's called the crab feast and it's uh it's a podcast I did with Jay Larson. And that library

this year, and I want to say thank you to the feasters out there, that library, it's been dead for five years. It did over a million downloads this year. So it is still thriving out there. It's called The Crab Feast. And it's every comedian you know and love in podcasting with different stories. So go check it out. All right. Go support my special on YouTube. It's out now as an album. And also you can now get this show, The Honeydew, video on Spotify. Nothing's changing anywhere else. It's just also you can go watch this on Spotify. All right. That's the biz. You know what we're doing over here. We're highlighting the low lights. And I always say these are the stories behind the storytellers and i'm beyond excited to have this guest on here

today ladies and gentlemen please welcome louis black welcome to the honeydew louis black thank you louis thank you very much for being here it's my pleasure no you don't even know dude will you um plug and promote everything and anything you like? You want to pull that mic a little closer to you? You can pull that closer to you. Is that good? Yeah, you're good. Test, test. We've got, I've got, I have a rant cast.

It's, instead of podcast, I read. I, in a sense, do somewhat what you do, which is you ask people for the horrible experiences. Basically, I ask them to yell about whatever it is that is on their mind. And it can be anything from pickles. People have gone after each other for pickles. You don't put a pickle on my plate. It's ejaculating all over my burger. I'm serious.

It's like, what is the matter with you people? I get that. You know, I don't know why. You're like, what's wrong with that? Resonate with me. Why is that? But it's true. And then there are people writing back, that's the best part of the plate. You know, they go nuts on each other.

One, a guy opens a can of a jar of peanut butter, and it's supposed to be, and I can't even remember if it was crunchy or smooth. I think it was supposed to be smooth, and it was crunchy. And literally a seven-minute, I mean, the thing is, is they write this out. Oh, so you're getting this? Oh, I'm reading. I'm reading seven minutes on the level of the amount that he hates,

you know, that he wanted. It was supposed to be smooth, and he ended up with this crunchy crap. So I kind of do that. That's on Apple and wherever you get these things. So a friend of mine, I don't mean to interrupt you, but he actually sent a few of these in. His name is James Reinhart. What's up, Big Game James? And this is a couple years ago, I he actually sent a few of these in. His name is James Reinhart. What's up, Big Game James? And this is a couple years ago, I want to say, he sent these in.

And you chose a few of his, I think. At least two. It might have been three. The names really. James Reinhart. Yeah, and I was like, are you trying to tell me you're writing for Louis Black on the side right now? You know, what the fuck's going on, dude? Yeah, so I knew about you doing that because he had hit me up like hey lewis does this and i

was like oh this is great well because it's the both ways the two things you do one is is that people don't get it until they hear it so that it's like you can talk about what's going on out there but you never hear the personal sign and And if something horrible happens to someone, and I'm not, you know, you basically get some schmuck reporter in front of you going, so what did it feel like? What was that moment? You know, no, let the person, which is what you're doing, you let the person talk the same way in which I go.

You know, somebody has a problem with health insurance. You know, you write down what it was. They'll give you a whole list. I stood in line. They screwed me this way. Then they screwed me that way. Then they screwed me. And I think it makes a huge difference.

I think it kind of gives folks out there a sense, really, a more human sense of what's going on, especially in the age of. sense really a more human sense of what's going on especially in the age and i'll bet you find voices out there that are like oh if you just would apply yourself into writing or comedy you definitely would have nailed this lane but you're a doctor or whatever am i right about that what happened like so many talented people as it as it's moved along they write they're writing for my voice is like as i said writing for a big barking dog it's not along, they write. Writing for my voice is like, as I said, writing for a big barking dog. It's not difficult. My voice is very obvious to write for. Once they picked up on that, the level of the writing that was coming in has been astonishing at times.

It's exactly as you said. That's crazy. And then otherwise, as long as I'm plugging my crap. Please, all of it. I'll be doing shows. If you go to lewisblack.com, you'll see all of the list of the shows. I'll be in two weeks. I'll be in Cleveland and Cincinnati at the casinos.

And then I'll be in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I'll be wandering around like an idiot is what I'll be doing Knoxville, Tennessee, and I'll be wandering around like an idiot, is what I'll be doing. Oh, yeah. And I'm wandering around up through April. And in April, I play, because we're from the same area, I play the Kennedy Center, which I never played. Oh, wow.

Do you really? Yeah. You never have, even with the Daily Show and all that? Throughout, there's nothing. I played Warner because when I was gonna do a special, the first people I approached was the Kennedy Center to do this special in Washington. I wanted to do it there.

It was all about a bunch of, there was a bit of the political in that, so it was a good place to do it. And I loved playing, you know, it's great to go back. Yeah. And so I, you know, so, but the Kennedy Center, this is like 20 some odd years ago turned it down be turned me down working there because they'd seen my hbo special and i said

fuck too much no yes they said they counted 100 fucks somebody said they fuck us on a daily basis in this country and you can't say the word. That blushes the Kennedy Center. This is what YouTube does. It's the same principle. One person over there is like, he says fuck too much. For who? For who?

I don't think he says it enough. Yeah. I didn't even hear him. You know what I mean? I'm not listening for the fucks. Yeah. I'm listening for the jokes and the laughs. Yeah.

Wow. Really? Yeah. You? So they bumped it. Yeah. jokes and the laughs. Yeah. Wow. Really? Yeah. You? So they bumped it. Yeah, that was the second. And that was really, that was an HBO special.

So they're bumping an HBO special at the Kennedy Center. Wow. I said the Kennedy Center. The president who slept with everybody. Yeah. I mean, come on. Yeah, for real. That's giving me a grip. Come on.

So I'm going to be doing that. And I guess that really that's what's going on now. And then if all goes well with the strike, at some point I will probably sit in the Daily Show. I'll be host. You know, they have guest hosts. And just before, I mean, basically I'm a union guy. Before, I mean, basically I'm a union guy. So, I mean, just before the writer's strike, which I'm in that group,

they went, you know, it was, I was literally two weeks from that time I was supposed to be doing The Daily Show. And they went, oh, we're going on strike. Well, okay. And it was good that we went on strike. But now I've got to wait for the, got to wait until SAG-AFTRA. It fires back up. Yeah. It's coming, though.

Yeah, it is. And will you get like a week or just different spots at a time? How do they run that? Three or four days in a row. Three or four in a row. Yeah. Well, look, I'm stoked to have you on here. You told me we were talking before.

You're 75. I can't even get over that. You look amazing. I definitely would shot you at 60. Well, that's very kind. And this for me is, I didn't tell you this before, but this is a wild turn of events. I love life. So this is 25 years in the making for me.

When I got here in 1990, well, the second time I got here to California in 97, I took a job at a hotel called the Beverly Prescott. This is now Lowe's. It's a pico and beverwill and you come in the lobby and i'm here to i haven't even started comedy yet i haven't even started doing stand-up in la yet i tried it out in baltimore at winchester's where you also performed and um i see you and i'm like i just leave the front desk i'm like fuck this and i just take the elevator up with you i was such a fan and i didn't know how to even say hello to you and i was like i don't want to bug him he looks tired it was late in the evening i think you had just done a show somewhere in that area and uh i just got in the elevator with you and you said how you doing i said i'm good how are you you said tired you literally said tired and i said i'm a big fan i'm here to do comedy you said work hard and it looks

25 years later wow you're fucking sitting in that chair that's wild yeah it is wild so thank you for being i'm telling you i'm super stoked to have you here oh thanks yeah it's a pleasure and i'm glad i didn't say go fuck yourself i wish you. I wish you would have. I wish you would have. If I can ask you, coming out of Baltimore, New York, you could choose to go to New York or L.A. And it always interests me. Why was the choice for L.A.? The winter. Wow.

I was sick of living. I don't mind playing in the snow. I don't want to fucking live in it i was tired of getting up it i would go to towson at i'd work at ups shout out to ups baltimore hub primary one joe avenue till like three or four in the morning in the winters and uh and that hub and then i'd sleep for a couple hours i'd drive to towson in the morning and i had a 1990 honda civic with original rims and i would have to pop the fucking hatch to get in because my doors were frozen and i just got tired of living like that and i was like

it's either new york or it's la i also really like the freedom of driving i like to drive cni and i went west that was those were the two factors, driving and winter. That's really it. Wow. That's really it. And I don't mind driving, but I did not like the 405. Oh, that's not driving. And the 101, all of that nonsense, no. And when I first came out here, and this for you especially, the same time frame, I could drive the car through these neighborhoods, and now that's gone.

Yeah, you ain't doing that anymore. Those fucking apps like Waze ruined neighborhoods because they're like, like well you can go through this neighborhood to get there faster now everybody's shooting through neighborhoods yeah and then they're making the bumps and then they're sitting now that and now these neighborhoods have because that was really my old apartment building we couldn't it was because of that there'd be a line of 12 cars at the stop sign waiting to get to go because they were routing them all through there. And we couldn't even get out of our driveway because everybody's just sitting there. God damn. That's really perfect.

Technology. That's a joke that I would do when I first came out here. I said, there will come a point where you will go and sit in your car and you'll turn your car on and you will not be able to back out of your driveway because there's a lot of traffic there. 100% happens. And I said, you'll bring a sandwich and you'll sit there and finish your lunch and go back in the house. Pull right back in. And go, this was a great day.

Maybe I'll get out tomorrow. I was sandwich-less. But Liz, I really do want to get to talk to you and know a little more about you, because you're a Maryland. Are you Maryland or are you DC? No, I'm Maryland. You are Maryland. I'm Silver Spring.

OK. you because you're a maryland are you maryland are you dc no i'm maryland you are i'm silver spring okay so which was literally you know equidistant between um dc and baltimore is that right is that really the halfway it's pretty close you know it it really is in some ways it's uh silver spring is closer but i mean but not by to dc but but not by much. You know, I was 25 minutes or 30 minutes from Baltimore. So where, what was it like growing up? Do you have brothers, siblings, parents? My brother, I had a brother. He passed away, sadly. He was in his 40s.

You know, cancer, it kind of sucked. What kind of cancer? We don't know because my mother says they ask if we can do an autopsy now my mother's my brother's getting cremated and i'm and he was a smoker i was a smoker at that point uh and i said uh you know we gotta see what it was because he had lung issues and we didn't know if it was lung or limb of just can we find out because i'd like to know she goes no we're not genetics you know no we're not i said come on i've got to know he's dead he's dead he's going to be dust he's going to be dust it's not like

we're we're you know we're going to bury him and that you hacking him up. No. And so I'm not letting them out. No one's going at him. He's gone. Please. So we don't know what it was ultimately, but we think it was lung. And then I don't know if you've lost people, but the thing that gets weird over time. Why I have this show. Why I have this show. Why I have this show.

Is that right? Yeah. So, you know, what you end up with is, you know, you wonder, you know, about these people that, you know, like my brother, others. You go, you know, three more years, they were testing a drug on him, and that didn't work. But three years later, they evolved the drug. And now, people who had whatever cancer my brother had, chances are, because of the level of the drug, and you just go, if they only live two more years, one more year, six weeks. So the hospitals weren't able to tell you you or he just didn't go for treatment at

all no it was no he went for treatment the hospital wasn't sure if it was long where it started got it and i just would like to have known if it's if it started in the limbs and got in the lungs but but uh he uh he passed but uh he was a younger brother three years younger he was a younger brother, three years younger. He was the youngest? Yeah. All boys in your family? Just me and my brother. That was it. Now here's the – and then my mother and father. My mother passed away last October. She was 104.

Did she really get to 104? Yeah, she got to 104. Hell, yeah. Was she still with it and together i mean as i say uh she there's a condition she had which uh all if you're if you if they're not facing dementia or alzheimer's they come up with what my mother has they'll name the condition at some point my mother just made shit up made it all the way to 104 just make shit up you know especially the last four years she would just tell these stories and go what the fuck she's apparently i mean this people won't

even the younger members of the audience maurice chevalier was this singer this french singer and did some films and stuff and my mother told the whole story about how she was sitting in the audience and stood up and told him off while he was on stage, stopped him in the middle of a song. And the audience brought her on stage. And then she brought me out. And that's how my career started. There it is.

There's the child's going to ask. What's the genesis of your career? My mother, it's a better story. It's too bad it would have taken it would have taken a lot of the pain up i wouldn't have had to play winchester but see that's interesting to me how the mind works, too. So she would tell it like it was true, and she's speaking from memory, and all this is just fabricated. Yeah, it was fabricated. What's amazing is to watch that mind, when it's still lucid in the sense of you're not,

you don't have Alzheimer's, you don't have dementia, what you do, she's creating a story. She's got a through line. She's kind of, you know, you think, well, now she's turning a corner. She ain't going to. And then she'll pick something up. You go, God, it's stunning to listen to. And my father lived to 101.

Damn. You have a lot. So, unfortunately, you're younger, brother, but you guys seem to have longevity. We do have longevity. Were they either of them smokers? Yeah, my mother smoked until she was 65. And made it to 104 and man yeah and your dad as well i feel like everybody from that generation smoked because they told you no my dad

uh smoked early on like till he was five or you know i was five or six he smoked cigars and then he quit he didn't really like him and that was that he never smoked so and he made it to 101 my mother really did kind of part of what I always thought was keeping it going because my father died. Who died first? My father died first. And then you figure when they've lived together that long, I thought if she lived six more months, that would be remarkable

because mostly they've been together like 69 70 you know some 70 degrees 71 years and so you kind of go well how's this how's it going to work she can't she uh and um he it was just incredible to watch uh that she had there was somebody down the hall who was older than her and she just kept every sudden she'd go i'm gonna beat her you know the woman down the hall she mom's 101 the woman's 103 i'm gonna pass her you know she's gonna i'm gonna whatever she gets to fire well that was it was really and whenever she had like uh you know one of the things she passed on to me, but it was anger, but she, she was, I always felt like, I hate that bitch down the hall, that old bitch. But you think, you know, in terms of anger that she was literally, I kept thinking, you know, as long as she's got something to be irate about, she's going to keep going.

And then, and then she kind of just got tired of it. And, but the 104 and 101 is, if you could, they said basically it would be the equivalent of winning the lottery to have parents live that long. Is that right? Yeah. That it would be. Two parents that are 100 plus? And my reaction was, sometimes I wish. I'd rather have the money.

I'd rather have the money. I'd rather have the money. I mean, you know, really, they could have lived to 96. I mean, that's. 99 is fine. Yeah, really. 99 is very good. Oh, that's too good. I mean, it's really kind of amazing.

So they were, and it was a pretty good group. I mean, it was a good family. You know, they're really, the tough thing now is there's nobody. You know, it's kind of like. Do you remember? Yeah, you're alone, huh? They're all gone. Do you remember when your brother passed, what that was like for your parents having to bury a child?

Because, I mean, and also, I know they didn't know they were going to make it so long. But chances are, if you're making it to 100, you're burying your kids. Most likely, you're burying everybody. Yeah. Everybody. Well, you know, that's the thing. You're lucky. Yeah.

You know, that's the thing. You know, the parent is not supposed to outlive the child. No. So they were. How old were they when your brother passed? So 40. They were in their 70s. They were teenagers.

Yeah. So at that point. Yeah. I mean, I had to be 100. I told them to move out of the house. Well, my brother, actually, let's say. So they were about 81. let's say so they were about 81 okay or uh is where they were 80 81 79 or 81 and i once he died and now i'm touring my

ass off and i you know and uh and i say i go first off i go you uh you you you're gonna have to move uh out of the house. I mean, because they're going to be, you know, I'm thinking, you know, at least by 83. Was it stairs? Was it up and down? Yeah. And by 83, but you figure, but they were in really good shape.

Are they still driving? Taking trips. My father drove until he was 95. Damn, really? Yeah. And only because my mother made him drive. He didn't like driving anymore. He couldn't see.

He's, you know, they shrink. We got to know they shrink and he's barely seeing over the steering wheel for christ's sake or they did they stay in maryland the whole time they they it was interesting they moved from they uh they were they were in uh silver spring and moved sold the house and my mother looked at everything uh everything around and found this place in owings mills yeah i lived there for a little bit and uh they moved there and and they really you know and that was the reason you know they could still they could drive back roads they could go to the places they wanted to go uh and and uh you know because i said to you but this is another one by so they i said you know we've got it there's a place place here in New York right down the block from me. So, you know, this might be where you and pop want to stay. So I take her to this thing. And it's a pretty good assisted living situation. And I take them in there and I take

mom in. Dad's not there. And she looks around. She comes out. I said, so what do you think? She said, here's what I think. If we lived a block from each other, okay, within a year, one of us would be dead. And it's not going to be me. So, and it was good. You're wrong. That's true. She was really something.

And so that was really, you know, that. Then they stayed in Maryland. They loved, they both liked Maryland a lot. You know, I miss it. I think it's a great state. It's an underestimated state. It's treated like, oh, oh, look, look, Washington, D.C. got a cancer. It's called Maryland.

Fuck you. Fuck you is right. You got all four seasons. You got an ocean, a bay, and a city. You got legit mountains, the Appalachian Mountains out there out west. Yep. It's phenomenal. And you got history.

And such history. And great history. I mean, our country's national anthem was written in Baltimore. Yeah, just yesterday, not knowing I was going to see you, somebody was talking to me about, why would you go to Baltimore? Because we wrote the stars back up out of they've shmucked every song come on every go there you go to fort mckenry okay spend a day there constellation ships there and then it's funny because as a kid we're field tripping

non-stop to the smithsonian and the fort mckenry when you're a kid you're like okay big deal then i move out here and people are like you've ever been to dc i'm like every fucking year from kindergarten to eighth grade i've been to dc like i've never been i'm like you've never been and then i start realizing like oh my god no shit we we drove we're so lucky then you get up and you see the fort mckenna he's literally built like a star yeah exactly and then they let you fold the flag and all that. And you're like, yeah, there's real history. There's real history.

And I think, and I started talking about it in my act, not as a joke, but just to basically inform them, you've never been there. You yell about your government and you never step foot in the city where it is. Now, get your ass up and go there because if you don't like the government, that's, well, you don't even know how it ended up off course. That's right. Go see who founded this country. That's right.

And what they had to say. Just don't go west of the stadium. Yeah. you might not need to see the Babe Ruth Museum or the Agueralpo Museum, but go definitely during the daytime. Okay. So they both live to be that long. They obviously have to bury your brother, their child. But they actually, what I did do was, and this is advice I would give people,

because your parents really, I mean, they were, you know, depression. And I, to be honest, I didn't have the depression in part because when I returned, I had seen him, left, and when I got home in new york they called i've taken a subway home he he had passed away got back in the subway went back to see him and see him there and felt him in the room you did totally and felt him pretty much for until my mother died wow and then how long was that? And then I think she grabbed him, and now she won't let him back. Now you've settled on it.

But really, it was pretty incredible. I mean, I literally felt that presence. And I'm not like, ooh. I was kind of like, this is weird. I was kind of like, this is weird. So I took them aside after about almost six months, a year, and said, okay, now you got to snap out of it. Because you know what? I'm here.

I'm still here. You can't ignore me. Good for you. I need you to let's stay on point. I'm as sad as you are about this. I am not happy. And we've got to, you know, we've got to kind of regroup the wagon. And we did, you know, and to their credit. You had that kind of relationship with your parents or you just said, I'm taking this bull by the horns and I'm doing this?

We had a pretty, it was kind of like one of those things where sometimes you say shit and then you'd say it you know two years after the fact but this was really like for me as much but as much for them because they were still really mobile i mean i took them on trips with me we you know they'd go if i was working casinos on the east coast you know they'd be at like mohegan sun they'd come up there they'd go out to you know they'd go if i was working casinos on the east coast you know they'd be at like mohegan sun they'd come up there they'd go out to you know vegas and stuff i would fly them out you know and they love that and uh and so uh it was kind of like okay that's and now it's gonna be fun because i'm doing well okay yeah you know we you know somebody else is paying for this and do you do uh did your brother

have a family or kids or a wife and that was it they not they had not had a child no kids yeah so there was you know that's kind of like there's no one right no one left and my mother my parents continuing in the line of you want to know about my family. My parents were both born and raised in New York and came back to move to Maryland, which is unusual. I mean, both of them moved to Maryland. Unusual. Oh, wait. They met in Maryland?

No, they met in New York and moved to Maryland. Together. Together. And they moved out of the city because they wanted to get away from both their families. And they didn't want to deal with that bullshit. Four-hour drive was enough for them. Yeah, that was it. That's fine.

We'll get out. And then we would go back. So it was great. We would go two, three times a year. And then you could see they were relieved to get out. You know, they had, you know, some good, but they didn't, there were only certain people in the family that they liked. So in a sense, they're just a few relatives that I have.

Most of my family now are my friends, my close friends. In Maryland, though, did you have any extended family or was everyone all in New York? There was a couple here and there, and I don't know how they got there. But they were down in Virginia. They were just in Lake Anacostia or Alexandria, and that was it. And everybody else was up there. This holiday season, you might be looking for nutritious, convenient meals to keep you energized on jam-packed days.

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and use promo code HoneyDew. Now, let's get back to the do. All right, so I'm going to ask you this because I'm hearing you cough. Yeah. And you're telling me your brother probably passed. Oh, yeah. Are you taking care of yourself? Are you seeing a pulmonologist?

Oh, yeah. Good boy. Yeah. Don't worry about it. As a person who just went through what I went through with lung clots and everything, I'm just hearing you. Oh, yeah. No, you got. What you're hearing is the sound of smoke.

Not cigarette smoke. But from years ago? From years ago. But also, I have a COPD. So I have an underlying condition. But it's not debilitating. It's just, here's the sound of a healthy animal. It's just, here's the sound of a healthy animal.

So that's, and I find if I talk a lot, I get phlegmy. Unless I'm on stage, no problem. How do you deal, I was going to say, how do you deal with that in stand-up? Yeah, it worked. Isn't that fucking crazy? I could have diarrhea. I always, before I go up, feel like I'm about to shit myself. I get nerves. I know. I've never before I go up, feel like I'm about to shit myself. I get nerves.

I know. And I've started to pee. I've never had to walk off the stage to piss. No. Poop. Nothing. No, and you go on, and then it's also you go on stage, and the energy coming from them lifts you two feet off the ground.

It does. And all of a sudden, you kind of go, you're a little tired. I mean, what's really weird, I know that it'll be a good show if I'm yawning. I'm sitting backstage, and I'm not tired. I'm just like, I'm really, and I kind of go, boy, because people go, how do you rev up for it? How do I rev up for it? I walk, I take three feet out, and they seem, they're happier to see me than I've ever been to see myself. Amen. You know?

Yeah, people are like, don't you need to get in a zone? I'm like, no. When I've ever been to see myself. Amen. You know? Yeah. People are like, don't you need to get in the zone? I'm like, no. When I walk out there, that's the zone. They're going to zone it for me. Yeah. I'm going to be like, are you serious? Yeah.

I can't even get over it. Every time I'm almost, I had a standing ovation and I got embarrassed. I was like, you're making me feel weird. It's nice, but you're making me feel weird. Because what you just said, you're way more excited to see me than I ever have been. Well, it is when they do that. It's kind of like, because what happens, I think there's that moment, because I have that thing. I mean, I'm going, and also I'm like going, it was okay.

It's an outstanding ovation, okay. okay you know but part of your brain also you know that whoever you were on stage once you're done you go since you're not talking all of a sudden you're back to being you know ryan again yeah not brian the stage ryan you're just ryan and you kind of go and once that drops once that facade drops it's like what's up with you folks yeah like that guy left the stage okay you know like yeah i'm fine yeah um so tell me about growing up in maryland then were you close with your brother yeah you guys were how old were you uh apart three years three years who's and he was the younger brother he was the younger brother brother. So he's the one who really was, he did, he was, he got on the, he became the president of the school. He became, oddly enough, back then the big battle was, and this is irony, the definition of irony.

You know, this I'm giving it to you so my brother uh with part of the reason he wins is the the president uh and he won it twice in a row which is unusual i mean it's a good really remarkable kid and uh he won it because he he pushed for and got done a smoking lounge nah yeah he got it he made it happen he made it happen listen i've talked about this on this podcast i was a freshman in 1987 87 88 is my freshman year 89 90 wait 878 89 yep night yes freshman year 1987 that's the last year we had a fucking smoking lounge. And I asked my friends, like, do you guys remember that? And some of them do.

And I'm like, it was right on the corner by the science rooms. And it was this one little room. And you had to either be 18 or your parents had to be trashed and sign a permission slip to say that my 15-year-old can smoke fucking cigarettes. And it was in the school. And that corner was just like a dragon belched you know what i mean and then they stopped it because obviously yeah and then all the bathrooms were just you couldn't even go in and take a leak without coming out and stinking like you smoke like it was bad it was bad that's interesting but he fought for smoking he fought

for a smoking lounge and died of lung cancer i mean it's just that's the definition of irony it's just it was weird and he didn't smoke terrible what do you mean oh yeah he smoked later on he did that for the people he's a man of the people yeah but so for me i mean just to clear up the thing about my health. Tell me. I had about a pneumonia a while back. And this is the residue. I see. And that was like December of last December. So that was really what.

And that's the sound of the healthy animal. All right. really uh what and that's the sound of the healthy animal so and so uh so it's this in the but it's but i mean you know then they they i kind of went through everything and i'm back to you know the you know it's just energy level is not what it used to be yeah you know but that keeps coming back and that just takes time know. Any other health scares over the years? No, nothing. Never a crazy kid, never breaking bones or any of that kind of stuff? No, I never broke a bone.

No, no, no, of course. And then he left the podcast. Don't fall down our stairs, please. Jesus Christ. I forgot it was this high. It was vertigo. I was so excited about working that day that morning with what did your uh what did your parents do what'd your dad do mom do well my mom was a substitute teacher at the

school okay that we went to school at what was that like for me i didn't it was weird but it was weird for me my brother for me i would stay in the classroom and watch it. The high school? The high school. Okay. We were interesting. This is what made, I think, and this really made our high school great. What high school, by the way? Springbrook.

Okay. So when we started the school, it was... Sorry. Nice sound. Listen, as long as you're healthy, it is. I am. No, it's really, it just pisses me off because I just got up, but we won't even go into that. That test, test 47.

So 7th, 8th, and 9th, we start at school. The school starts at junior high. Next year, it's 8th, 9th, and 10th. Next year, it's 9th, 10th, 11th. So as a 7th grader, we spent literally, we went from seventh to 12th together. Oh, okay. So it created a really, you know, you were all, by the time you're in 10th grade, you would run out of people that, people who could be beaten up and people who were going to beat you up. That was, so we'd already kind of gotten through.

So we kind of were a pretty good group together. And my mother would come in to teach i would watch her my brother was like fuck you i'm not sitting in that class while she's up there she would go he would skip the class he would oh yeah he said i'm not dealing with that your mother and i'm and that's how smart he was because i'm i'm like i better show up i would have been like i better fucking be in in this one. But the second born is watching and is going, nothing's going to happen. You know, that's bullshit. So she was there, and she was really – and what made it easy to be is she was so fast at nailing kids that there was no bullshit.

There was no like, oh, we got your mother today. It was, you wouldn't believe what your mother just said in this class. And the big one was, this kid said, why do I have to learn this? There's something about geography or whatever. She goes, here's why. You know that Sears down in White Oak? You know the gas station there? You know that Sears down in White Oak? You know the gas station there? Well, you know, when you graduate high school in a year and a half or two, I just don't want to be there when you're pumping my gas. Your mom wants to.

That's your job. And I have to say. Now here's China. That's exactly it. You better fucking, that's why you're learning. That's how you should teach kids. Not because you need to be culturally appropriate or informed or educated. You don't want to be pumping.

So you're not down there pumping my gas. And pumping gas and then dealing with me. Because all I'm going to tell you is I told you so. You don't want to hear it. I'll pull out a mat while you're fucking pumping it. So that was my mother. My father was – he worked – my father – one of the great things my father did, you'll get a kick out of this, was that he lived in New York City

and he went to school. Now, this is New York. He goes 1936, maybe. Let's see. Yeah, 1936 or 37. He goes to school from New York City to the University of Oklahoma. Wow. In like 1937.

So as a Jew, so as I said know possibly the first jew to cross the border you'll ever be in oklahoma probably yeah and ann goes there and he um lives with uh a couple who are you know one of the guys going to school and they're both you know native americans i can't remember what tribe they were in so your dad went there for school for an education yeah he went there for school, for an education? Yeah, he went there for an education. And they had a good mechanic. He wanted to be a mechanical engineer.

So I said, you know, that's really odd, Pop. You know, you decide you're going to go all the way to Oklahoma. I said, why'd you do that? And he was an only child, and his father had died when he was one. So just his mother. He had cousins and stuff. And so they had that family unit. And he said, the reason I went out there, he said,

I wanted to be as far away as I could be from my mother and still be in the United States. And that was Oklahoma. Oklahoma. And he was the guy who would drive to Texas to get the liquor because Oklahoma was a dry state. The whole state back then was? Yeah.

Oh, wow. As far as I know. I remember Maryland. I mean, shit, even as I don't know if it still is or not, but it was Carroll County where we were was dry on Sundays. But you could go to like Howard County or just a different county and get it like within the same state, which I always never understood that bullshit. Yeah. But I didn't know the whole state was dry. I think it was, you know, and then so,

and he became a mechanical engineer and, and then when he was in his early sixties, we were in the Vietnam war. My mother is yelling about the, you know, she's constantly yelling about the war. They're not going. It's disgusting. My father says, you've done no research on this. You don't know if the war is legitimate or not. They based it on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

And that's based on the Geneva Accords. I'm going to read the Geneva Accords and find out if we should be there. And I'm sitting there going, who, what? In retrospect, no one read the Geneva Accords except my father. Not even the president. I don't think any of them did. Somebody said that's what we're going to tell him. It's about 70 pages of this stuff.

I mean, I looked at it. You can barely. And he read the whole thing and closes the book. And he said, there is absolutely on the basis of this, of what I just read, we have no moral reason to be in that country. Okay? This is bullshit. But he, at this point, he was making sea mines, uh that was what he designed and what are they blowing up they were you know it's all your it's all like defending your harbor so that was the

reason he never felt like it was a defensive weapon so he never felt any guilt about making it so we're not they're not using it to attack they're using it to defend so it's a perimeter thing sort of if you enter in this way audios yeah you know you come fair enough right fair good don't start there won't be none yeah exactly but you just set it up too because what however what happened was is then within six months of my father reading this or a year um we mine haifang harbor the around we mine the area around see i don't know that yeah we did and we mined it area around. Oh, we did. See, I don't know that. Yeah. We did. And we mined it, and we put sea mines there. And now we're using my father's weapon as an offensive weapon.

And he goes, that's in. I'm out. I'm not going to be a part of this anymore. So how did he stop? He quit that job? He retired. Damn, did he really? Good for him. He retired and unbelievably began doing stained glass,

apprentice to a guy who does stained glass, but did all of these kind of wonderful stained glass pieces and then began to take courses at Montgomery College. Okay. Montgomery Junior College. I played them in soccer. I just saw Catonsville. Yeah, that's right.

I was very excited. The coach is a fan and sent me an honor. You're a player forever. I know. That was terrific. That was very nice. I was good. I was all Juco at Catonsville, man.

Were you really? Yeah, we played Montgomery. I remember Montgomery County. Yeah, so that was – so he started doing that, and then he started taking painting, and then he became – then he painted, and I've got like 130 of his paintings oh wow so your dad's just one of those creative talented super smart people well it was kind of remarkable because he could he i think it's what he wanted to do you know you see i think in part you know the the generations that we came that we came from you know basically

you kind of go i'm gonna do what i want to do i'm not doing i'm not buying this i say this all the time we as men are different than our fathers and my grandfather fought in world war ii my father's in vietnam and we're like i want to act and they're like what are you fucking talking i want to paint and dance like what are you fucking talking about yeah okay yeah we're definitely a different breed yeah but my father really was like he had that in him but but it was a total example of committing to it was like i'm not doing this anymore i'm gonna do this and what a difference from that to stained glass and painting and art yeah wow i mean he ended up doing what he wanted

to do and then he and then another one of the great lines i've ever heard anyone say because it was because really he he made me realize you that you you you do what it is you want to do you stay true to yourself and the fact that they're all of those people during the vietnam war that i you know i'm not going to leave for this. I'm going to do that. My father is somebody who really gave up something to, you know, and people did do that. But my father was one of them, and it's right in front of my face. And it's a huge lesson. And he becomes, so he really, at the age of 83, he decides that he stops painting. 83, 84, he goes, what's the matter? And I've never heard this from anybody.

He said, you know, I ran out of ideas. I said, what? He said, I did all the ideas. I can't. He painted everything that was in there. Yeah, he did. He painted about 200 did all the ideas. I can't. He painted everything that was in there. Yeah, he did. He did. He painted about 200 paintings, all told.

You ever think you'll hit the limit where you're like, I don't know. I think I've talked about everything I want to talk about. At times, I feel that now. Do you ever do? I do feel that. I mean, what I feel is it's like that thing of I've done 12,000 jokes, the difference between a Democrat and a Republican. Okay? You didn't hear the first 11,999.

I can't come up with another one that's going to be funnier than the ones I did. And apparently, you're still going to continue these two parties, even though I've tried to point out what's fucked. These parties continue to be, you know, see it today with Schmucky the Clown, you know, McCarthy. They get Schmucky and then Gates and you watch these guys and it is like out of a clown car. And so you kind of go, we've got to really we've got to. What's the next joke i haven't sometimes i'm walking up i haven't got the next joke they are already telling jokes yeah they're they're crushing it yeah i also i just think like i'm not a political person uh and i often wonder i don't

know when it's going to happen it'll be when this generation's in their, what, 20s, 30s. But soon, very soon, there will be a generation of politicians who've existed with social media being in their life from day one. Unlike us, where it came in for me in my early, mid-20s, this is going back to their parents putting shit up. And I think you got to be crazy to get into anything anymore with a history online. Because what if your dad was a fucking Nazi? Yeah. You know what I mean? And he's got a picture of you with a fucking AK and this shit.

And then you're like, I didn't want to be in that picture. You know what I mean? So I just think. And then, thank God, some of the dumb shit I did said whatever in high school or when I was just some, you know, dumb piece of shit, uh, isn't on camera somewhere and out there. So I just, I just feel like politics it's already so, so different, but I feel like it's going to get way different in the sense that it won't be, what can this person do to help us? It will be, how can we smear that person and bring them down? Cause there it's going to get way different in the sense that it won't be what can this person do to help

us it will be how can we smear that person and bring them down yeah because they're it's going to be there for everybody and it's just going to be smear campaign smear campaign it's never going to be hey this person lewis black is here to do this for you it's like lewis black's a piece of shit and look at these videos you know and that's what I think. The other, and this is the lunatic part of me speaking, but I also feel because I have this, I always have this faith in the next generation. And for all people yell about what they do, that they will kind of go watch, like my brother are watching this and going, we're not doing this shit anymore. What we're going to do is figure out how to work together and get these things done. I hope so. And I believe that's what's going to happen.

I hope so. Because I think they, you know, each, we, I think my generation failed in a massive amount of ways. But at least initially, in their 20s you really try to figure out another path and you know so we start earth day we do i said but on earth day i said the only reason the only reason we started earth day it it looks good on paper but really all we were doing was we were doing so many drugs we had to have one day it would remind us what planet we were living on but we we ended up we we kind of like i i feel like we kind of put these little you know we did this you know we believed in this we believed in that and then we didn't follow through but it was all on the table and then now really 40 50 years later 50 years later, boom, that group is already starting to go, you know, I'm going to – you got this kid who won in Florida.

I think you're going to see a different – I hope so. I mean, will you see it? Somebody just recently ran, you know, you kind of go, you know, a single mother of five who won an election, you kind of go, there are people coming out of the woodwork who are going, enough's enough. So we'll see. I hope you're right. Well, so do I, because I don't want to do this for a living. No.

I also feel like, and I don't know if it'll be my daughter's generation or her kids, but I do feel like there will be a generation of people that push back on social media and be like, we're not doing this bullshit. Fuck that. I don't want to be on there and i i also think about anonymity too where my daughter never if she all of a sudden becomes 20 and was like i don't want to be on social media i never wanted to be but you guys put me on it you know i've taken that i've put her on instagram a picture me and her our first oriole game that. Yeah. She may not ever wanted to be on there, you know? So, and at a kid, she's going to be nine next week. Yeah. So, you know, I think about a lot of that stuff.

There's always pushback from something that everyone loves that usually later on someone's like, yeah, well, fuck that thing you all love. You know, so. But I think we're going to get through that. I think people get fed up with it i mean people my my generation is you like this with it oh look we created this i don't know uh what do you mean i'm trying to get a i can't get google i can't get and you watch kids watch me do it, and I go, stop it. I'm like, it's like watching an ape, you know, trying to use digits.

They're digits for the first time. But I do think that what happens is they're way down the road with it. And then there's going to be the road where they, I've talked about this from time to time that you know this we are basically you you take this this is it's taking part of your brain is here now you go you don't go oh who played for the ravens in whatever year you kind of go fuck i can't okay and then you look them up and you heard you know where the movie i can't who the hell i can't remember movie actors and i used to be

really i mean that's what i fucking it was involved in that business for a long time i've been involved in this thing and i can't i was like you know the movie with the guy you know the guy and so you what happens i think is is that so we the first step is is that we took our brain and i put it in my pocket so i'm literally carrying my brain around next to my nuts. That's what I'm doing. I got to reach in to scratch my balls. For a long time, that was doing all the thinking early on too. Yeah.

And it was. I want to ask you this. So your dad was in, well, so worked for the military so to speak but not serving right yeah the defense department but did he serve as it was okay so he's like my brother works for the army but he's a scientist but yeah that's it it was the same thing okay oh is he an average yeah he's an average fucking yeah i know everything um a stop on the on the on the train from baltimore yeah out there by Cal's baseball field. Yeah. Where does your love for government, politics,

where does that come from? I have no love for it. I don't know where you got that. Where does your love for it come from? It comes because I know we're better. Was your family a political family? Were your mom and dad into politics and things like that? Yeah, and the neighborhood around, it was like.

I mean, you are right outside of D.C. Right. That had a huge effect. Were neighbors senators? Well, we had a neighbor down the road when I went to high school. One of the guys, his dad was, you know, big in politics. I think he ran a few times. I went out.

I mean, I left. I got out of politics because I was involved with it. So, I mean, I went out and helped get a judge elected, and I'm the guy who brought the, you know, the boxes of chicken and chicken salad or whatever and hand them out, and he makes a speech and all of that, and I did that for a while. But it was like – and it was a different time because the people like at that point um the the charles mack matthias was a was a senator from maryland really great you know republican so i tell my mother you know i'm voting

i voted for him and my mother's like, you can't vote. I said, he's as good as the other guy. And if not so better, and they basically are off by two or three degrees. I said, he's really good. And he speaks better. So stop it, get a grip. So I mean, I kind of it was but she, she would run around, you know, League of Women Voters, she would try to get people out to vote. It was not a, and it was never a question of getting Democrats out to vote. It was get everybody. And then my next door neighbor was a Democratic leader.

So all of that, I was awash in that stuff. Okay. And then, and that. Then you started watching it all and dismantling it piece by piece. Then I started to just, this is psychotic. This is crazy. you people are nuts um but always one of the first things that got to me was every year in the washington post uh there would be the picture of uh the capitol and then kind of an overshot and behind the capitol were the worst slums in the world some of the worst slums in

the united states and and every year i'd look at that okay how that was the that was to me the end of like you guys are looking out the window you can see it and you're doing nothing so this is what i want to ask because i know we got to get you out of here um a couple things did you or were you able to at least have any real meaningful conversations with your parents before they passed so anything that stands out talking to and and who who was more i'm sorry that's okay who was more sort of with it but both of them still there mentally could you have a conversation i know your mom was in the last three years was already making, you know, took credit for the career and stuff. But does anything that stands out?

With my father, it was literally it was just kind of went slowly and they both died in their sleep of natural causes. Is that right? It's crazy. God damn. They live all that way. And it wasn't cancer or anything that ultimately took them out or heart. It was just never woke up. Never woke up.

And who's calling you to tell you? My father had, you know, his heart was slowing down. But basically, you know, he's 101. I mean, you know, you kind of go, how many times has he been? I mean, anytime that phone rings, I'm waiting to hear it. I got two calls coming. You know, it's so that my father and i didn't really have but of that conversation um you know i could say i could say goodbye and i could we uh

we had some we had moments that along the way uh where you know it was um you know where he was he was glad i made the choice to do what i do. He got, it was obvious. He didn't have to say anything. It was obvious he got a big kick out of what I was doing. Cause he was, he's the one who got me into theater watching. We went to plays together. And, and so then all of a sudden I was writing plays. That's really where I started. And so he was big on that. And they'd come to anything I wrote. My mother was still like, well, if you're not going to be a doctor and you're not going to marry a doctor, you ought to just, you know,

get into health insurance. It's like, come on. You know, I'm a playwright, Mom. But so they were, you know, and then but my mother and I, my mother was really her level of sarcasm was such that she couldn't. It was, you know, there was always, you know, you never got it straight. But before, about two weeks before she passed, we actually had that moment. Did you?

Yeah. You know, and what was was and this i've never really talked about much except with close friends is that uh we i realized my mother and i had never really looked in each other's eyes that's interesting and what made you think that you like caught her gaze and you thought that we sat we because when i said goodbye you know basically we it was that moment and i'm holding her hand and she's that we sat we because it when i said goodbye you know basically we it was that moment and i'm holding her hand and she's lying in bed and we just were staring at each other for i'd say 30 seconds to a minute just quiet just quiet and that was a life change

because i feel like you know thank you yeah we're moving on yeah so thanks for making me nearly cry okay this is not okay i don't come to la to cry asshole maybe you're telling me oh yeah i want to get down and that's nice because i want to know stuff like that i you know it's i really I want to know stuff like that. I understand. I really do want to know things like that if people get that moment. And look, you said it. 30 seconds of silence. There was more said there than 104 fucking years. Well, you know what I mean.

104 years that could ever be said using this tool right here. So that's power. And then I did it. Here's the kicker to that. This is the setup now. So I'm sitting with my mother. We were in Vegas. I believe it's either Vegas or we're out in Atlantic City.

And it's me, my father, my mother, and a couple others. And I turned to my mom. I said, you know, I've never asked you two this question. I'm 65. I said, Mom, is it your idea? Whose idea was it to have children? And she pointed at my dad and said, yes. She says, because if it was up to me, I'd never have kids.

And I'm like, oh, my. If it was up to me, though. My eyes are flipping yeah i said you know i am just really glad you waited till i was old enough but it didn't have to tell me it didn't disturb me at that age it makes sense you know 65 okay i can handle this i thought you were gonna fucking hit me with you and your mom staring each other at the edge she said who are you or go get my son are you here to wipe my ass uh dude thank you so much for doing this this has been awesome this has been great man i really enjoyed it it's a pleasure to meet you same i waited a long time for you to sit in

that chair brother um we're gonna get you out of here but before we do please advice you would give after everything we've talked about advice you would give to 16 year old lewis black wow um um Wow that's a that's a you know the advice I'd give me was I was I wrote a book that is called nothing sacred and the book really was written for 16 year olds is that right well that's the way i wrote it i mean i wrote it i didn't i didn't directly but it's what i wanted to tell them about like you've been through and i've been through it when you kind of that that um you you know that it when you start out you you're going to make all these mistakes along the way

and all of these places you'll go. But if you can figure out what you want to do, it'll help right the ship. And stop worrying about what happens every day. But it took me into my 40s to realize that. And I don't know what I wish i told myself what's in that book which is that um that you know you you know you you you you've chosen what you want to do enjoy it and don't worry about that's great yeah that's great advice you. That's great advice. You know. Thank you very much. Plug, promote everything one more time, please. I'll be eating at your restaurant.

Please get me some free food. Anybody who can send me bottles of wine, I'd be really happy. We've got, I'll be doing shows on the road. Go to lewisblack.com. I do my, my rant cast. You can get from Spotify spotify apple wherever uh if you go to the to lewisblack.com you can find out how to write a rant i'm reading these rants we're still getting them out there uh if you want tickets to the show i have a fan club it's the only way to

get around um ticket scalpers so good So I got the first 10 rows. It's called the Fuck You Fan Club. Is it really? Oh, yeah. I love it. And people still bitch, and you kind of go, no, you know, what do I pay for? You've got to have a human being, okay?

And the human being needs to be paid. And it's $20 bucks which is less than ticket master and you're not going to get diverted to stub hub you've been through it you know where the gee i paid 1500 for a ticket to see me then you're a fucking idiot yeah and so we set that up to beat uh ticket master and the rest of them and uh and so you know come on out and see those shows. And hopefully, if all gets cracking with the, I'm not supposed to say this, but I don't care if all gets cracking with the, which I think will happen with the strike for SAG and AFTRA that I will be on the Daily Show for four days. And Inside Out 2. All right. We've gotten through a chunk of it, and we hope to get it out,

depending on if the strike threw us back. But we were shooting for June or July. All right. Yeah. Very good, young man. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. It really has been.

It's been awesome. Thank you. As always, RyanSickler.com, Ryan Sickler on all social media we'll talk to y'all next week Bye.