The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Reggie Watts - HoneyWatts

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

My HoneyDew this week is musician and comedian Reggie Watts! (Conan, The Late Night Show) Reggie Highlights the Lowlights of growing up in Montana and the death of his parents. 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 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: BetterHelp -The HoneyDew is sponsored by BetterHelp, get 10% off your first month at https://www.Betterhelp.com/HONEYDEW  

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I'm Ryan Sickler, ryansickler.com. Ryan Sickler on all your social media. Excuse me there. I don't want to start this episode like I start all the episodes. I want to say thank you. Thank you to every single one of you out there that watches, listens, subscribes, comments, however you help the show, thank you very much. And if you've got to have more, then you've got to have the Patreon.

It's called The Honeydew With Y'all. And it's this show with y'all. And the stories just get – okay, here's a quick sample. 1994 or 5, if you're old enough to remember, my guest today is. There was a little baby in Indiana called Baby Hope. This little baby was born and found in a dumpster, stabbed with an umbilical cord and placenta, fresh in this dumpster. Never found out who did it. This kid's mom is walking them around the neighborhood going, look at this, look at this.

is walking them around the neighborhood going, look at this, look at this. Finds out just three years ago, that baby was his sister and his mom had died, but she was involved in it. And we got the whole story. It's still a cold case. It's just stuff like that over and over week after week. It's wild. So also check out the way back right here on my YouTube, the new podcast where we go back in time and just have a little fun in that backseat of the station wagon. And for dates, Ryan Sickler dot com. That's where you can get everything. Now, you know, we're doing over here. I always say we highlight the lowlights and that these are the stories behind the storytellers. I am very excited to have this guest on here. First time on the honeydew, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Reggie Watts.

Welcome to The Honeydew, Reggie Watts. Hi, hello. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Before we get into your story, please plug, promote everything and anything you'd like. Oh, geez. Plug, promote.

Well, I'm going to plug, promote, guys, right now. I have a book that came out October 7ober 7th i guess some of the no october 17th called uh great falls montana uh post-punk weirdos and the tale of coming home again and it's basically about my it's a autobiography and mostly centers around my high school experience uh and delves a little bit you know past that but it mostly focuses on my group of friends from high school. So that's out right now. You can get it wherever.

I would encourage go to a local bookstore, order from there. And then I have a special that I'm going to be filming in March for the Veeps platform, which is a new platform started by the two brothers who are from Good Charlotte. Oh, yeah? The band? Yeah. Oh, yeah? The band? Yeah. Oh, okay. So they started this new subscription kind of a la carte platform.

Wait, are they the twins, Benji and – I don't know if they're twins, but they're brothers. They might be twins. I think they're Maryland guys. Oh, okay. I might be wrong. Did one of them marry Nicole Richie? Am I thinking of the wrong band? It could be.

I don't know. I don't know i don't know i mean i remember good charlotte seeing people getting involved in different things they got a network coming they got it yeah they got they they have a bunch of specials coming out i think i think david cross has a special coming out on there and he's been on the do and someone yeah some other some other people but they're getting like a bunch of comedians for for specials and then they have they bought a bunch of content from people and it's also music so live music performances on the veeps platform so it should be pretty cool it's brand new um but

at least i get to make it i've been trying to make a do a comedy special for years this is your first one no this will be my fourth okay i was gonna say yeah but the last one was like 2014 on netflix so uh but yeah I'm stoked. So I get to make a new special, and I'm really excited about that. So those are the immediate things coming up. Good for you. I want to ask you this just about a book in general because one of my goals, I always feel like, oh, I just want to be published.

I want to write something about my life or whatever. Did you find it? Would you do it again? Like writing a book, i've talked to so many people and some of them are 50 50 like man it's so much and it's a lot of work and you know is it is it like that uh grind where it's a passion project more than anything else or do you find that it was you know that it hit you personally what was it i mean i you know i wasn't really interested in writing a book you know i i i um yeah i just whenever i thought about writing a book it just seemed like way too it's just uh just mount everest in front of you you know i'm like i don't think i

could do that and i'm not much of a reader uh i mean i research a lot i read a lot of research but um science and art stuff but like i, I just, I'm not really a reader. So I was like, I don't know if I'm the right guy to, you know, come out of the book. But then I thought about my life story and, and then wanted to make a film or a series about my high school experiences in Montana in the eighties. And so my management, my team were like, yeah, well, you know, one of the best ways to kind of help with that is to write a book about it because then people can read it and get a picture of that possibility in their heads. And so, yeah, so that's how I went.

And I got a ghost writer, really, really great guy, similar sensibilities to me. I made sure a similar age came from the Midwest. And then even though Great Falls, Montana is the west it's got a midwest vibe to it and my dad's from cleveland so there's a lot in common with that writer and he's an amazing writer and we work together to create this book and i would definitely do it again i want to do the next book i want to do is seattle washington and then next one, New York, New York. Next one, L.A., California. So let's talk about your life story, because I'm also curious why you chose that high school chunk.

Because I feel like if I I know that will be the chunk of life I write about as well. Yeah. Because so much happened to me in that time period. Good and bad. Yeah. So I'm curious. Tell me a little bit about like where you grew up and getting into uh montana yeah i mean i uh you know moved there from europe my dad was in the military

and we moved i moved there when i was i think three and a half or four you're born in europe i was born in europe where in stuttgart uh where they build porsches well where the business offices of porsches are they actually build the Porsches in Zuffenhausen. But, yeah, so I was born there. We moved around Europe. My mother's French from France. And, yeah, we ended up in Spain for most of that time that we were in Europe. And then moved to Great Falls in 1976.

So what age did you hit Great Falls i was like four i think because i was born in 72 so i mean what what a difference you know yeah for four years you're seeing all sorts of people of race color everything yes and then you go to montana and i imagine it's as white as the snow it's so white it's like 98 I think 98 white is the populace if you look it up it's crazy it's so white 98 98 98 but you know the funny because like moving to Great Falls that's about as cosmopolitan as you get it's still 98 but you got like nine black kids throughout my school thing so that could have fluctuated there could have been like four one year and then like but how many in your actual grade you're talking about your high school in my grade four grades i don't think i had

i had ludy gomez who was filipino um in my class i don't think i had another there wasn't another black student i don't think so um another, there wasn't another black student. I don't think so. You're telling me in your whole high school class, the only two people of color are you and that Filipino dude? No, no, no, not in the high school. No, this was elementary school. So elementary school.

Yeah, grade school. There were probably some other kids in lower grades, but in my actual class, like I think Ludi was my, probably the only person of color. And there may have been, there were a lot of like half Euro kids, you know, because of the base. So you get like half Greek. Oh, I see. I had my friend Tony Beard, well, he goes by Lou now.

But in high school when I met him, his mother's Thai. So he was half Thai, half white. And so there's a lot of like half white, half European of different ethnicities that popped up here and there. But straight up black students, I mean, yeah, it's about like eight or seven to nine probably at any given time. So, you know, but the weird thing is like there was some racism, but and I maybe it's just my memory. Maybe I'm just selectively like making everything positive. But like I didn't really have that many problems. I'm sure people were being weird to me because of the way I looked, but I kind of chose not to see it. So I would just address people just straight to their face like a regular person. And that's probably the most effective way anyways, because they're just like, what's going on here? And he's like, Oh, hey, I was just hanging out with Tom down there. Do you guys have any shipping supplies? Oh,

okay. Well, yeah, we got it. And then they just forget. They're like, damn, damn it.

I was supposed to, that was my chance. And I fucked it up. It's like, God damn it. Fuck. He goes home and he has like a huge conversation with his wife. It's like,

I fucked up. I fucked up. It was my one chance. There's not that many of them in town i don't know if he's passing through if he lives here i don't know and then we end up having a good conversation i don't know what's going on here man i'm sorry maybe i was wrong it's crazy crazy that's an interesting thought to think too like you're a lot of people's probably first black friend.

That's true. Yeah, I never thought of it that way. But, yeah, that's true. Holy shit. Totally true. Yeah, I mean, yeah. And I'm sure. So, I'm sorry.

Your mom's French, born in France. Did they meet over in Europe in the military? So, then you guys all come back to the States. Why? There's a base there, you said? Yeah, Air Force Base, Malmstrom. And then do you live there in Montana from what four years old till till I graduate till you get out yeah okay yeah what's

that like I mean honestly now you get past elementary school and middle school and stuff because high school is where it really yeah that's where it's at yeah I was stoked about high school I was super ready and are you moving through school with all the same guys all the way through so you guys mostly yeah yeah i'd say like probably 80 percent of the people you're in school with you're still in school with as you're moving up through those grades how big's your like um high school you had a big school a lot of kids it was i think 1300 kids 1300. that's not small it's not small it's not texas or anything i feel like that's what we were in maryland yeah i mean i've met friends that have like 3 000 kids in their high school 3 500 but you know bigger but you're talking about like east coast kind of or more east bigger cities but

uh we we also had another high school across town which was really it was perfect you know we had like a rival high school yeah and they were i think roughly about the same size like 1100 1200 kids so we had like rival sports teams teams, and they lived across the river. It was kind of a perfect, you couldn't get, it felt like if there was a real live Sims game, like Great Falls is a Sim city. I mean, it was perfect. You're like, okay, where is this plot of land? It's next to a river. It's like, oh, okay, well, what should we build there? Well, let's build a dam there and let's get some power going. Okay, where is this plot of land? It's next to a river. It's like, oh, okay, well, what should we build there?

Well, let's build a dam there and let's get some power going. Okay, cool. And so add some neighborhoods here. And, oh, let's make sure rail lines are coming through there, enough rail lines. And maybe we'll start a smelter right over here on the river. We'll start smelting copper. And maybe this will be like the trade route of the West. You know, there'll be like the Chicago of the West.

Everything comes through here. Oh, no, the Great Depression hits. Oh, shit oh shit and then the government's like we should put a base here and they're like okay we're gonna put an air force base here what's the air force i don't know it's new started in 1956 i was like well let's just put one there and then and you know put a base but okay we got oh how about a cannery over here okay let's add a cannery over here that'll help the income you know whatever but like an international airport like it's just it's very it's it's cute it's just like a contained town like you drive 15 minutes any direction from the center of town and you're out of the town it sounds like it's a snow globe town yeah totally that's a perfect way of thinking of it yeah that's exactly that because you're like

here's a city and then you literally just drive and suddenly wheat fields like oh is there city i don't know i think there's a city behind this well it's turned around yeah city's still there it's it's a very contained what's the closest major city and how far is it i mean gosh i mean the ma a major i mean probably a bigger city would have been billings which would have been 120 000 so would have been like twice the population of great falls so that's the biggest city in yeah billings and whitefish have been there yeah yeah billions but you're farther out than that huh well we're right in the middle oh you're in the center so it's like it's like center slightly west uh right in the middle of the state and then yeah and yeah, and then we have Missoula, which is kind of down.

We have Bozeman, Billings. Those are the biggest cities in Montana. It's different. We went to a karaoke. Well, we went to a bar that I didn't know they had karaoke. It wasn't necessary. Let me backtrack here. We went to a local bar, and it wasn't karaoke.

It was a local band. And Whitefish? Yeah. And this guy was the son-in-law of the dude who owned it. So he had to play. And he was not great at all. But everybody's out there country line dancing and stuff. And the wall, the three walls all the way around.

You probably, maybe you've been there. And I'm not exaggerating when I say this. It's a stuffed buffalo. Yeah, of course. It's a fucking ram. Yeah. of course. It's a fucking ram. Yeah. I mean, it's massive. It looked like the fucking Smithsonian, like with the little tumbleweed behind it.

They made a little display. And it's just massive animals all the way around. I was like, holy shit. This is different. Yeah. Did you hunt and fish up there? I tried. I think I went duck hunting once.

Luckily, my neighbors across the street, that's actually something I don't think I gave them enough credit for. I was really thankful. My neighbors across the street, they were from North Dakota originally. And I don't know what religion they were, but I think that they were like some kind of kind of subsect christian religion of some sort never quite found out but his name was robbie and we were friends and we would play star wars all the time and he had like an older sister that was kind of a bad a bad girl which later it's like she wasn't a bad girl she just like loved having adventures you know but back when we were kids are like oh she, she's doing stuff. You're not supposed to, you know, so she's bad. Um, but we, yeah, we played star Wars.

We had so much fun together and his father went fishing a lot. So we'd go fishing and their little, you know, truck bed camper. And we'd, we'd all had our, you know, dad took the upper one and then we had like the two side beds and get up early in the morning, get in the boat and go fishing. So I fishing a lot i didn't mind that but when we went duck hunting once i was not feeling that i just and luckily we didn't get any ducks they they got nothing that day and i was so stoked because i just even though i ate meat like i the killing of the animal yeah i could i just and it sucks because it's like i'm a hypocrite, you know, like I enjoy chicken, but like, well, actually I did kill a chicken once in France.

I worked in a market when I was visiting my relatives and I would like, you just. Did you have to catch it first? Yeah. You just pick them up and you. Oh, this thing wouldn't run and you'd have to chase it. No, no. It was just like in a cage. And you really do just snap.

And you're holding it by the feet and you're like this for this much money. And I figured out a way to kind of bypass that you know that like i don't want to kill something and i did it like for a day or two and i was like i can't i can't do this anymore so that was as close as close as i got so as a montana and maybe my fellow montana friends are like oh what a wuss but like i just i i. But I mean, I'd go into my friend's garage, and there'd be an elk hanging from the rafters. An elk, yes. With the horn still on and the antler still. And tons of cardboard on the floor.

And everyone has a deep freezer. They all have a gun room. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. A buddy took me down a gun room, and he opened it up. And it wasn't just guns. It was moose and elk antlers. Yeah. Just on the floor and shit. It was moose and elk antlers.

Yeah. Just on the floor and shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, what are you doing with these? I know. I know. It's just like it's that hunting culture that just like I don't know what it is. It just is the way that it is. But I used to go to school.

Kids had guns in the gun racks in their trucks. Yeah. And so I want to say it was my freshman year was 87 and then everything changed after that was last year i'm a freshman in high school it was the last year we actually had a smoking lounge in the school wow yeah we had a room where if you're 18 or i always say or had shit trash parents yeah you could smoke in there um and then there was the racks you you couldn't come with a pistol or anything but if you drove in and you had the gun rack back here and you had a shotgun or a rifle in there, nobody said a word. I know.

And they weren't even locked. No. It was literally you could walk in and go, look at this. Yeah. I couldn't believe that. Probably had ammunition in it because everybody's 17 and fucking dumb. Yes. I know.

Yeah, it's true. I never had an incident. Never, ever had an incident. Kids would have knives, I know. Yeah, it's true. I never had an incident. Never, ever had an incident. We never, kids would have knives, you know, pocket knives, like no one. In Montana, everybody's got a knife. I mean, most Western states. That makes sense. you just have a knife and you can look at anybody's pocket and you'll see that worn down spot where someone's clipping their knife or whatever and it's just a normal thing or sometimes people have buck knives you know they're like hanging off their belts whatever they and no one ever says anything like i was in missoula for a punk festival that they used to have um every year it was so cool called total fest and it's no longer but amazing bands would show up there and you'd have like people just walking out of bars with their full pint glasses of beer just walking across the street big ass knives hanging

i'm like that's sick and then and then when and then when people have like these like misunderstandings about people who live in cities and you know people that you would classify as liberal and people you classify as as conservative which to me is all a bunch of fucking bullshit. But, uh, they don't understand they're like, weapons are dangerous. And it's like, yeah, that's true. However, if you go to Montana and you're like in Missoula and you've got a knife and you walk around with your pint, it's like, of course they're going to be like, no, they're not dangerous because we live in it every day and we're not having problems with it. But then someone in the city is like, yeah, but someone got stabbed yesterday because some psycho or whatever.

It's like, yeah, but there's two different areas, two different styles of being. So there can't be a blanket solution for everything. And you also said a key word in there, some psycho. Yes. These are not normal people walking around town enjoying responsibly, P.S., enjoying an alcoholic beverage. Yes, P.S., enjoying an alcoholic beverage. Yes, exactly. There are people who can drink and have a weapon. Yes.

And do nothing with it. 100%. At all. Except for go home with it safely. Yes, exactly. 100%. Or you, like, needed to whittle something. Yeah. It's like, oh, what do you need?

You know, God, you just made me think of something. I grew up in, I'm from Baltimore originally, but after a while, we moved out to the county. Yeah. And it was country as shit out there. Yeah. And I remember redneck dudes taking their buck knife. God, you just made me think of this. You ever see anybody cut their nails?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember who the guy was. You just watch them. I'm like, are you cutting your fucking nails? He's like, yeah, I'm just cutting them off. I'm like, with a buck knife? Yeah.

Yeah. I know. I know. He's like, yeah, I'm just cutting them off. I'm like, with a buck knife? Yeah, I know. Because it's like the modern day version of a knight or something back in the medieval ages. It's like you had a dagger or something and you just had it. And that was your tool.

It wasn't like, you're not, it's not. When we see a weapon, yeah, I mean, if you have a tactical switchblade or whatever, that's what I like to carry. But I just like it because it's convenient. It's like, it's the blade is out. The blade is gone, like back in my pocket. I like it for convenience, but, but I'm not thinking like this thing would kill. So I'm just like, this is a cool tool. And all my friends are that way. So, you know, it's, it's funny, my liberal friends, I guess you'd call them liberal in Montana that are just about like treating people fairly. I guess that liberal which is stupid that's what liberal is there they're like no everybody ought to be able to do whatever they want and i'll give a fuck right

like that's liberal there but they're like but they're still like no i still want my guns i still want my knives it's like i support gay marriage but i want this i want this ar yeah i want this ar it's like okay i want to build it because i like it's techno it's got you got a stamp i can i can do silencer i can do suppressor whatever and you're just like oh okay that's good but the balance just makes sense there where you're like okay i won't fuck with you you don't fuck with me great done right but uh so most of my friends who come down like from montana who are visiting la they're kind of they're tripped out by like everyone's hypersensitivity to but i'm not against that because it's just a product of the environment

so like you know when i think about growing up in montana i'm lucky i felt well one we grew up in a time i think the best time to grow up ever personally and it's not me just being like a pre-boomer or whatever but like uh being able to like have that freedom of like going to school with your pocket knife being able to whittle stuff you know on the playground after whatever and then um you know the alcohol thing like you were taught and we're talking about like canada was like up you know so if you were like 17 had a fake id or whatever you could like cruise up there or i think in canada at the time it was maybe it was maybe 16 or something like that anyway so we would go up there like that. Anyways, we would go up there.

Or I didn't, but friends would go up there to go drinking. I wasn't a big drinker. So I'd go up there, go drink it, take road trips by yourself, no cell phones. A lot of responsibility. You had to kind of raise yourself in many ways. And Montana itself, just being wide open possibilities, like we'd go hiking on the weekend and be like, Hey, let's go backpacking up in the mountains. Just two or three friends with backpacks in the winter.

It's like freezing and our parents just drop us off and okay, we'll see you in three days. Really? Oh yeah. All the time. Tell me, let's talk about high school. Cause I'm curious,

like where do you party? You guys doing field parties? If you don't have a house, I imagine field parties are probably pretty big in Montana. I mean, for like the popular kids, like the most of the the the yeah, the average party kid, it would definitely be out in a field somewhere. And you'd be like, oh, it's up by Ryan. Ryan Dam. OK, let's go.

But let's go to Ryan Dam out in this field. It's like we take first right here and then take a left at the sign. We're going to put a little thing there. So, you know that it's our thing and whatever. So that would be it. But then sometimes we'd have house parties. But when I,

when I met my new group of friends, my kind of like post-punk weirdo friends, like my skater friends, my BMX friends, my road bike friends, the, you know, the girls that were like listening to Susie and the banshees and

like all the the dark goth stuff and that crew like we always found our own places so we'd party in caves we had these caves that we found that we would like party in kind of caves though and animals probably in there right then they weren't they weren't um natural caves they were mining shafts okay right so we called them the caves but they were like great it was a granite mine an old granite mine um and we'd have to sneak there because there was a house that lived across the dirt road from it um because they went up a pretty steep hill and there were like these cliff faces and somebody was actually in the house and they would yeah they had the porch slide and they had dogs so sometimes we'd have to park really far away and then cut into the land along the cliff face and then just like quietly

make our way there so the dogs wouldn't bark but um you know we'd go there there'd be a person's you know parents that were out of town so we'd go to that house or my mom was cool with having the kids like hang out in the backyard and park in the front and like we'd hang out in the basement they'd smoke in the house because my mom was a smoker and really yeah i didn't like it i didn't like my mom's my parents i made my friends smoke outside but sometimes my friends would be upstairs smoking with my mom talking to her um and uh it was just like i don't know it was it was chill we could party wherever like we we had we had options or we'd go over to a friend's house like sometimes in the middle of winter it'd be like we're going to bozeman it's like how long is it gonna take to drive there about four hours uh do we have four by fours no we don't have four

by fours all this like bs like people are like i gotta have an suv i have to have a four by four and all these people like going hardcore on four by fours i live out in the mountains how many four before i had a renault 18i you did not i had a renault 18i my friend had a renault 12 because they were they had french moms so like the french moms had french cars you know and we had a renault dealership you remember that shit yeah yeah renault 12 renault 18i you're telling me that car got around in montana in the winter easy that little french easy yeah that's great isn't that crazy like was it rear wheel drive front wheel drive it was you had that front wheel drive at least for when you would fucking get into that yeah we just we went on

the freeways and you know we had you know we put on chains you know whatever but that car took me everywhere so all this like all this like i gotta be high up and i gotta have four by four and 30 inches of clearance all that it's just a bunch of garbage unless you actually live up a super steep grade with like rocks or you gotta grind yeah i get it right but like this whole fascination people have especially even in montana like people not from montana moving to montana i need a truck it's like you don't need a truck man you know what do. Are you hauling shit? You're barely hauling anything.

Are you hauling it? It just becomes a neighborhood dumpster. People just throw shit in the back. I know, like, oh, here's the garbage. It's like, I don't want a truck. I want a nice cabin that I can put my friends comfortably in, and we can just drive and have a comfortable ride. Because trucks are not comfortable rides.

But anyways, my diatribe aside, yeah, we were just like, we had so much freedom back then. The Honeydew is sponsored by BetterHelp. A common misconception about relationships is that they have to be easy to be right. But sometimes the best ones happen when both people put in the work to make them great. Therapy can be a place to work through the challenges you face in all of your relationships, whether it's with your friends, work, your significant other or anyone. You've heard me talk about therapy on here a lot. I've mentioned that when my daughter almost got hit by a car, just anxiety. I just came unhinged. I went to therapy and it worked. I was scared of

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help.com slash honeydew now let's get back to the do so what was it that hit you and impacted you in such a way that you decided to write this book about that chunk of your life what's going on at that time i mean you know i is it a good time is it a mixture of both no i mean i mean for the most part it was great because i was you know luckily again perfect timing when i was in junior you might have had the same timing but when i was in junior high uh 16 candles came out 16 candles was awesome there was nothing else like it like and I remember seeing it in the movie theater. I was, I don't know, how old are you? 14 or whatever. And I was 14, went to a matinee. It was like a free ticket or something. Like if you're under age, you could go to this thing for free. And I

went to a matinee. My mom used to drop me off all the time to see matinees at Cine4 and it doesn't exist anymore. But I went there three o'clock in the afternoon, no kids in there. Well, like two other kids in there. So just like three people watching this movie and it blew my mind. I was like, holy crap. This is man. Imagine if it could it be like that? Could, could life be like that? And the music was cool. The kids were interesting and weird. And Joan Cusack had, you know, had gear on and couldn't drink out of a drinking fountain it was it was awesome and just like you know getting underwear and like my you know um my own dog which i've met that guy in real life yeah yeah he's he's amazing

he's really sweet but you know it's incredible incredible it's so funny because my daughter um she's nine now but last year she had this knot in her hair that like the hairdresser spent three hours i was like i can't get it yeah yeah and i'm like what are we gonna do and the hairdresser's like my age and i'm like we're gonna 16 it's a straight up we got 16 remember yeah oh that's right just cut it oh my god so she's like i can cut that chunk but but I can do my best to layer areas around it so it doesn't look like that girl that they just cut her fucking hair. That sticks in my head. I don't know why.

She was so bummed. Oh, what? I showed her on YouTube, like, this is what we're about to do to your hair. It's so, it's amazing. But that movie was like crazy it was like so super inspirational and that prepared me for high school so when i was like oh i'm about to go into high school and this movie came out exactly at the right time i you know got into high school and i was like oh and then high school breakfast club came out

um and then you had ferris bueller's day off you You had Some Kind of Wonderful, 3 O'Clock High, Better Off Dead. Better Off Dead still, yeah. I mean, like. Buddy and 3 O'Clock High and Better Off Dead with still $2. I mean, I still have friends that will every now and then hit me up with $2. Oh, $2. And the Asian dude that did the perfect Howard Cosell. Perfect. Here we are

at the finish line. Again, we have Lane and whatever. He crushed it. I mean, it was amazing. And he puts on the fucking dishwashing gloves and puts the car in reverse. I mean, it was awesome.

Those were awesome. uh weird science which i watched like 13 times so all of those movies was all about such an anthony mccall that was crazy yeah of course and robert downey jude and they even went to snl together for one of those down seasons that's right they did yeah i mean that was a huge phenomenon back then and teenagers never had anything like that before he had like porkies was like yeah but it wasn't we were even a little younger yeah i was i was a little bit too young for that 50s gym stuff yeah yeah yeah i was like oh can i see the girls and whereas like hughes movies were more about the what were the girls thinking about you know what were the guys thinking about what were

they worried about what do girls under pants look like yeah what do they look like we're not peeking in and seeing bush in the shower like forky no no there was mystery there it was like mystery and it was also absurd it was silly and it was like heightened and it was weird that door opened up which is kind of true it's like if that were to happen that's like everything you've ever imagined as like as as a boy you're like or whatever but dude's in the trunk because some big muscular guy said that's where you're going if you want to go to this party there are plenty kids i'm like okay i guess that's where i go that is where you go yeah i mean yeah so i mean we had all this like called a cultural instruction like the possibilities were laid out in these films. And, um, and when I got, and I, I think I had that experience in

high school. It really felt like I got to experience those movies. I lived those bits of those movies in high school with my friends and we had incredible adventures and we learned about each other and yeah. And there were like some dark things, but we were there for each other and yeah and there were like some dark things but we were there for each other and we got ourselves through some you know some heaviness with cool responsible weirdo psychedelic partying you know um and and amazing music and so that's i wanted to kind of capture that and transmit it and just have a document of it but i'm really interested in making it into a film or a series because i think it would be cool to see that like you know what was it like to hang out and you don't have i mean obviously every every comedian probably wants to do

a movie about their high school experience but freaks and geeks you know prime example but i think like mine would be a cool angle like you, you know, I think enough weird things happen that I don't think people even believe happened. Yeah. But they did. You know, it's like that's because it was the product of the time. We were able to do that. And your dad's a military man, like a lifer. Is he in the military for a career, man?

He was he was in the Air Force. He retired when I was like like nine or something like that. So, yeah, he was. Yeah, he retired from the Air Force so yeah he was yeah he retired from the Air Force but he was in the army before the Air Force he switched to the Air Force oh wow and then your mom what does she do she when we first got to Montana she sold Avon hey god damn you are taking me back bro i forgot avon pink cat i remember seeing my mom and her friends would sell that or have tupperware all these products in the house tons of products in the house and then people will come over and like i'll buy that i'll buy that yeah yeah yeah yeah and they would or she would go door-to-door selling avon she did that and then she got into uh cleaning houses for the for the air force base

so she was a housing house cleaning or cleaning contractor um and she became like the best on the base so she was constantly working and she's such a hard worker so she'd get up at like four in the morning and would be off to go do a house you know and damn and come back at like you know five in the afternoon when i'd be i'd already be home from school and um yeah she worked her ass off and but she loved that getting cool stuff you know so she was ordering cool porcelain leandro statues and um you know cool furniture and. And so she worked really hard and was one of the providers for the house. You know, my dad provided and my mom provided. They were together the entire time?

They were together until I was turned 13. I started getting into almost fights with my dad. Just a lot of resistance. You? Yeah. Why? Because he was a – well, he came from a disciplinarian household, you know, being in the black community in Cleveland, Ohio. And his father lost his father when he was younger.

The father was murdered. And then his new stepfather was very strict and religious, like a Baptist. And so I think he just, and his mother, his grandma, or his mother was also very strict as well. So I think he came from that and he was trying to use that method on me. But I was kind of like a smart ass kid that was always trying to get in and out of stuff by being tricky. And I, yeah, I was just anti-authoritarian you know so when he started trying to get up in my face about like doing stuff i started resisting more and more and then i got to a point where my mom thought like this could get bad so i'm going to send him away and so she sent my dad away and said like you you gotta you gotta go and so he like did they divorce or she's just like you

gotta get out like so she doesn't believe in divorce but they he's like you can't be in this you can't be in this house so he i think he ended up uh going to school for business management in arizona and so he went there and then he ended up moving to cleveland because his mother was getting older so it timed out already. He, she, he needed to be there to help take care of his, his mother. And I would go visit him on, you know, summers and sometimes he'd come to great falls for like Christmas. Um, but he would go back and I think it was a good call on her part. I think it was kind of crazy, you know, to like be a parent and go like, I making this decision. And you got to go.

Yeah, you got to go. I love you, but this is, we got to. But also, he didn't stay local. He decided, all right, I'm going to go. Yeah, he really went. He really went. Yeah, he was like, I'm out of here. But I'm glad.

I mean, I don't think I wouldn't have wanted him to stay. I got a little bit more freedom. And I love my mom. you know, even though. So just you and your mom? Do you have siblings? No. Just you and your mom at this point from what, eighth grade, ninth grade on? Yeah.

Yeah. So basically junior high and high school, my dad wasn't there. He came for graduation, obviously. And then he stayed. You say, obviously, you know how many people sat in that chair and people don't show up for weddings graduations yeah a lot dude a lot that is true there's a lot he he was cool i mean i i will say that like i say he did the best he could with what he had and he was a vet he was in vietnam he had ptsd there was a lot of shit going on with that guy so i so even when i think about him today i'm never like your mom probably dad so your mom probably really did you a favor shielding you from any of

that totally absolutely so then you're just you and your mom but you say your mom's working all the time so you're a latchkey kid or you just let yourself in and out and you guys sort of see each other for dinner or in the evening and that's about it are you in sports and music and stuff all were you always home pretty much no i was doing music i mean i started uh taking violin lessons in fifth grade i think with linda lyddiard and uh she taught the the stringed instruments i think another teacher taught horns and woodwinds um and and then timpani and stuff like that. And then in junior high, I was in orchestra. So there was an orchestra program in junior high. So I was in orchestra in junior high and I was also in orchestra in high school.

And so I did that. But I also studied piano from age five to 16, classical piano, private lessons with a crew of students that we all grew up. Was that a family thing or is that something you wanted to do? did your mom or dad play were they musically inclined not at all no they love music yeah they they my dad played a little saxophone when he was a teenager but that was it he was a big you know charlie parker fan but um you know he got in the military and and did that but they always loved music they loved hanging out and partying and you know enjoying life um but they they loved it very much partying and you know enjoying life but they loved it very much so i took to it i really liked it was very natural and uh yeah so i studied tons

of music and got involved in as many after school or extracurricular programs possible i did you know speech and debate a little bit i did um, um, there was a art classes. Um, I don't know, just random shit. Uh, I was always trying out everything. I just loved being social and trying stuff and being involved in stuff and still feel relatively the same these days, you know, the way that I'm social, but yeah was it was it was actually perfect timing all of it worked out having that extra time having really good programs in school to get involved in if you wanted to and because the school system at that time was very well funded and we had access to whatever we needed as kids it was awesome so when you you graduate and then you leave mom stays in montana yeah and dad is where now back in cleveland still he moves back to montana he comes back yeah after

his mom passes uh your grandma well my grandma didn't pass till later but uh but he moved back like as soon as i graduated basically to be with your mom or no he did yeah they got back together yeah of course they never were you said of course well because i hear you they're not divorced they're not divorced yeah she just sent him away that's okay so he comes back and now they're a couple again yeah okay how does that work together does that work it works great i mean but he's also getting sicker he gets emphysema he had like some heart operations you know he's just uh was he a smoker is that he was a heavy smoker yeah he was a heavy smoker heavy drinker um not heavy drinker i don't think he was an alcoholic but they definitely enjoyed alcohol i never saw my parents like sloshed or

anything like that but um they enjoyed it so you know and also you know deep fried foods and salt and all the stuff that's not the best for your system um so yeah so he was also like a little bit sick you know and he was slowing down and how old uh when he moved back yeah uh i don't know i guess he would have been in his 50s that's young though i guess like maybe 55 or something like that and is your mom taking care of him pretty much yeah i mean not it wasn't that severe i mean he was still like moving around and working and doing housework and stuff but it just got worse as he got older like in the 70s um you know it just started emphysema got worse and he was having a hard time breathing and i think he died when he was 80 in his 80s 82 or something like that 81 and uh

yeah it just it just you know just all heaped up on him and you know just is that the way that works emphysema i mean i know you don't get rid of it but it's just a slow burn for some people and it just eventually just chokes you out yeah basically yeah because your your lungs stop being um uh flexible yeah and um and elastic and malleable so like the tissue gets really hard and it gets harder and harder to breathe because you're just having to force and he was on oxygen you know hanging out and it just takes all the all your energy away you know so and then it turned into cancer and then he died yeah in the hospital my mom was there thankfully but i he died on his birthday which is no i thought through my birthday party like a few

days early and then i had to do a gig in chicago and i did a gig in chicago and i was going to come back and then i called the hospital they were like yeah he passed away i was like what it's like on his birthday which is insane how old 82 one is like 81 82 he died on his fucking birthday yeah that is fucking insane i know and my mom died she predicted she would die in november no come on man this is wild what do you mean she's so when your when your dad died it was what month it was uh may uh fourth and are you saying your mom predicted she died November that same year? No. Or just you predicted her death month?

When she would die, she would, yeah. She died many, many years later. My dad was like 80 when I was 34. I see. So it was a while ago. But so she went, you know, she died last year. Or I guess, yeah, last year. Yeah.

She died last year and maybe five months before she died. She was like, I think I'm going to die in November. And was she sick at that point? Yeah, she was. She was not. She wasn't feeling well. She just there was like a bunch of things going on and like and she was also just tired. things going on and like um and she was also just tired and then when i came back because my the woman who was taking care of her was like i think that you better come back home and i was

like yeah i'll be there and the next day i flew out to montana and then we like hung out one night and then the next day the caretaker uh uh she yeah she was she usually She would leave at like four in the afternoon because my mom wanted to be alone at night. At her home. She's at her home. Yeah, she's at home. So she left and then I went and got her dinner, got her buffalo burgers. She loves buffalo burgers. And so I got that

for her. She had a couple bites, not a big appetite, and I gave some to the dog. And she's like, I think I'm ready to go to bed. And I helped her to bed, got her into bed. And then just hanging out in bed with her, just laying on the bed with the dog. And then she. Do you remember what you talked about? We didn't talk about a lot.

I was just kind of hanging out with her and just asking if she needed anything and then i remember she like kind of sat up once looked around the room kind of like laid back down and sat up another time and looked around the room and then when she laid back i said like i love you and then she said i love you too and then she rolled over on her right hand side and then had like these kind of gasp kind of like almost like sleep apnea like holding your breath and then she rolled over on her right hand side and then had like these kind of gasp kind of like almost like sleep apnea like holding your breath and then like letting go sleep apnea letting go and then she passed away you were there for that yeah i mean her literal last breath like that yeah damn yeah it was crazy that was that was it was a mean, I'm so glad that I had that moment with her and very, very surreal.

But she, that was November 1st, which is also the day of the dead. It is. It sure is. So like, I was just like both of my parents dying, like in crazy time periods on the, I'm just like, if this is a simulation. What do you do? It's the biggest wink. I got to ask. My father died when we were were 16 and I remember we found him in his bed and you know, there's a moment where you want to spend some time with this person that's not

there anymore. So you're literally next to your mom. Do you call 911 right away? Do you have a moment? What do you do? What do you do in that situation? I had a moment with her. You know, the dog was like, the dog was like a young, energetic, all black Shih Tzu. So he, the whole time, it was ridiculous. Like she's dying and I'm like holding him to stop like running around the bed while she's dying. So stupid. Yeah. So stupid.

So she's like trying to die, you know, like in a nice way. And this dog is like, I'm just like, God, man, get over here. Stop it. So she's like trying to die, you know, like in a nice way. And this dog is like. I'm just like, man, get over here. Stop it. Would you stop? And I'm like holding the. And I'm like, yeah, there she goes. She's like, stop it.

So stupid. It was ridiculous. It was ridiculous. It was like very sad, but at the same time also ridiculous. So crazy. Oh, man. That was crazy. That was crazy. Oh, man. It was crazy. It was crazy.

Oh, shit. But, yeah, I was just kind of there and, you know, holding the dog back. And then I just kind of, like, hung with my mom and, like, said some nice things to her and then gave her a kiss on the forehead. And then I called the woman who was taking care of her. And then she was very sad she developed a relationship with my mom and she was really great my mom liked her and so she came over and then i told my friend kelly um kelly stevens who is i've knew since grade school and uh he's always just been there for me, a really cool guy. And he worked, this is crazy.

He worked for funeral homes. He used to pick up people after they passed. So he did that for 12 years. And he, I called him and he knew exactly. He was just like, okay, well call the cops. They'll come over. And then I would call this funeral home. They're better than, you know, Crawford's better than these other guys and i was like okay great and you know called the cops uh brie came over

she was there she was like very distraught you know came in and saw my mom and then and then like kelly was there he just like just came in and he was very very helpful and then like the cops came one of the cops knew kelly was like hey kelly you know it was like hey and then his like partner went it's like i'm gonna do a an autopsy quick on-site autopsy and we'll be right back and he went in and wrote down all the stuff reports like you know natural causes whatever and then the funeral people came in and they knew kelly but there was like weird beef between him and the dude. So one guy didn't talk to Kelly, but like the lady talked to him. And you're welcome for the wreck, Dick.

Yeah, totally. It's like, what is happening right now? Dogs barking. It's like dogs barking. It's like, hey, Kelly. It's just like, it's just, it's ridiculous. You know, I'll make this not about you right now. Yeah, totally.

It's like, I'll talk to you. Yeah, guys, can we just, guys, can we just get through this? Yeah. And then they got my mom. And I said, I think I went back one more time after they had done their thing. And I just said goodbye to her. And then they put her in the bag and then put her on the gurney and took her outside. And then she was cremated immediately, like the next day.

Because my mom wanted what my mom wanted and um then like i was going to a psychedelics conference like the the very next day or no the next day and so i was like i think i'm just gonna go i think i think i'd rather just go to that and then i came back right after the conference like there was two days and I came back and then went to the funeral home picked her back up pick the urn you know well I picked the urn before um over the catalog the phone and then uh they put her in the urn they came back got the urn they signed some paperwork and then yeah came home put the urn next to my dad's urn and uh yeah that was that was a that was it it's crazy to feel like to know like you don't have parents anymore i know it's weird it's really it's a weird time it's like i don't think i've even processed you know what it is um you know i i do see a psychologist but we don't i don't know what it is i don't really talk about it

it's just something that I constantly think about, and I imagine at some point maybe there'll be more of a time where I'm thinking a lot more about it. Well, you don't have siblings. No. And do you have any grandparents left on either side? No. No.

I guess not. They lived to be old. They made it up there. Yeah, they did make it up there. So, yeah. so you got nobody reggie i ain't got nobody i do have uncles nance in france but i've just never really kept up with them and my mom had kind of a weird relationship with them um and they, later in life, she, she, she didn't really, she wasn't really talking to them that much. So, you know, the only uncle that really reaches out a lot is my uncle Manu. And, um. So your mom's brother? that's it. And he reaches out all the time, but there's also a little bit of a language, even though I do speak French,

I'm not like hyper fluent at writing it or I don't know what it is. I just like, I'm not as connected to them. So I haven't really talked to them like after she passed. I mean, he said like, I'm sorry she passed and stuff like that. But you know,

that was kind of it. So at some point I'll go back to france and say hey to them you know and bring some of my mom's ashes and kind of spread them you know in europe but she wanted my my dad and hers her ashes uh spread out in glacier national park so uh that's beautiful so i'm gonna do that at some point oh yeah yeah that'll be a cool trip to take with did you get to have any conversations with your dad about things before he passed or is he just again that that generation just like i don't we don't really talk about our feelings we don't talk about feelings yeah feelings aren't real did you get one at the very end though that he slipped one in on you at all

not really i mean we talked about i think we talked about some stuff but i remember he was also on some heavy painkillers so i remember him getting up and thinking that there was like a fly on the ceiling but there wasn't it was just like a weird shadow and we were talking about that and then i don't know we might have talked about nothing that i really remember that was that he was just i was just mostly just hanging out with him and he would be like you know you don't have to be here and i'm just like i was like that's no problem i don't mind being you know whatever it was it was you know he was just kind of a quiet dude um but i threw a party

for him it was really nice all my friends came and we had like birthday cake and wished him happy birthday and i thought that that was really sweet um i think he appreciated that and uh yeah nothing too heavy but i was i was glad i was there and i'm bummed that i couldn't be there when he passed passed but my mom was there for him. So that's good. That's good. Do you have any kids? No.

Do you want kids? No. You don't want them? No. No. I'm not interested. Do you have nieces and nephews? No.

I don't have no sisters, no brothers. That's right. Duh. Duh. Yeah, yeah. Cousins from your uncle over there? That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, there's some cousins.

Like the uncle having kids. there's some cousins there's some cousins but no one you're close with now yeah reggie you're on your own bro yeah at 50 that hits yeah first 50 years of your life you at least have mom yeah and now you're literally on your own yeah a whole new world does it scare you at all does it give you anxiety you don't at least have a someone to call or talk to about any fucking i mean i know you do yeah you have your friends but i mean does that you know like i can't call mom and ask her this yeah i mean i do think about that um but i you know i don't know it's an interesting thing it's mostly about like well what am i what's my purpose in life like what am i doing you know doing in life like it definitely makes you think a little bit

more about that and i definitely thought about like kids like in the sense that you know my friends who have kids are like oh man my kid is so amazing and i get all of that stuff but it's still not enough for me to be like i'm not really interested in that i'm more interested in exploring the world and i i love kids in that. I love like, you know, I'll talk to my friends' kids, you know, about art and improvisation or be silly with them and stuff. I love it. But I really like having my own time to myself and doing what I need to do. And that's fun.

I love that shit. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I'm dealing with that now,. Uh, and yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I'm dealing with that now, you know, just like what, uh, I don't necessarily, I don't have like a full-time partner, you know, I was going to ask you yourself getting married or I don't know. I don't know. It goes along with the same thing.

I know. I know. I know. I got engaged twice when I was younger and just realized I really didn't want to get married. Um, I don't think I would get married. I could imagine like finding a partner and maybe having a ceremony or something like that. But I don't think I would want to get legally married.

I'm with you on that, for real. You know? Yeah. Yeah. The same, have you been married before? I've been engaged to my daughter's mother. And then after a year, she was like, never mind. Oh, okay.

So, yeah, no wedding. No wedding. But I agree with doing something like the two of you go somewhere like i you know whatever go to italy get married and then come back and throw a party yeah totally because p.s party doesn't have the same price tag as wedding oh my gosh especially on a saturday you're so so about that. I've been to so many weddings where I'm like, why? And then those people get divorced. Most people, at least half.

Statistically, they do. Yeah, and I've been to weddings where they've been lavish, and then like six years later or five years later, they're getting a divorce. And I'm like, that's a lot of money and a lot of pressure. It puts a lot of pressure on the situation. You're like, we want to be together, and we're going to be together. I think it's different if you, I mean, if it's, I like the low key weddings where you're like, you can feel the love between them.

They're excited, but it's not, they're not making a big deal of it. They're just, they just want to celebrate the fact that they're getting married and they have these amazing friends around them and their families there. And I love that. and their family's there. And I love that. I think that's like such a beautiful way to do it. When I've gone to more traditional, like in a church,

you know, with the super expensive wedding gown and all the nervousness and everything. And the wedding planner, you know, I'm like, I'm just not into the wedding industry, the wedding industrial complex. Well said. Industry.

That's it. I don't know. Save some money, guys. Save some money, guys. Just have a good, fun, fun party i hope you uh i hope you find whatever you're looking for solo out there bro yeah it's it's out there there's there's fun stuff out there um thank

you for doing this for real this has been great um can i ask you now um advice you would give to 16 year old reggie watts advice i'd give to 16 years uh i would say um god let's say try to try to get better at communicating your feelings um especially romantically like just get better and communicating with people that you're romantic with probably the most and why do you say that what did something happen i mean we're all 16 like you're just yeah but you're right it's great advice yeah it's great advice well because like you know i loved i like dating you know lots of people and so i would see a lot of different women in different periods of my life you know but in even like my long-term relationships and things like that I didn't know how to communicate I didn't know how to communicate so that I became more vulnerable I didn't know how to become

vulnerable and the vulnerability is what creates closeness and so I was always trying to be like oh relationships are about fantasy and like perpetuating good times and which is a sweet kind of notion but it doesn't it only gets you so far and i think i would have maybe come up with some different realizations in life had i practiced that a little bit more i realized that that was important a little bit earlier that's great advice yeah um again plug. Plug and promote all of it, bro. Plug and promote. I got my special I'm filming in March. I think it's going to come out on 420.

Not totally sure, but that's the idea. And then, yeah, I have my book that's out in Great Falls, Montana. So you can get that wherever you get books. I also did an audio book so you can listen to it as well. Awesome. Thank you very much for doing this show. As always, Ryan Sickler on all social media, ryansickler.com. We'll talk to you all next week. Thank you.