370: Frank Caliendo | The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #370 | Full Episode

Summary

The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #370: Frank Caliendo

Release Date: January 26, 2026
Guest: Frank Caliendo

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Ryan Sickler welcomes legendary impressionist and comedian Frank Caliendo for an in-depth conversation about growing up in the Midwest, pursuing baseball, navigating family dynamics, overcoming childhood injuries, and carving out his unique place in the comedy world. The discussion, full of warmth and humor, highlights Caliendo’s ability to find laughter in life’s lowest moments—staying true to the HoneyDew's spirit of showcasing the “lowlights” of life and laughing through them.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Frank's Early Life & Family Dynamics

• Midwestern Roots and Moving:
  • Born in Elmwood Park, Illinois; moved to Addison, then Waukesha, Wisconsin around age 4 due to his father’s job change.
    “I was born in Chicago, Illinois. Elmwood Park, Illinois, is where I spent my first four couple years. And then my parents moved to Addison, Illinois...when I was 4, we moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin.” (10:15)
• Family Structure:
  • Oldest of three brothers: Frank, Rico, and Terry.
  • Brother Rico is in a Who tribute band, and Frank jokes about Italian naming conventions and family confusion about middle names.
    “My brother Rico. That's his real name. Rico Caliendo, two Cs...In Italian, Rico is Enrico, which is Enrique or Henry, but he's just Rico.” (11:28) “My parents named me, frankly. And my mom still thinks that all three of our middle names are Lee.” (12:40)
• Father’s Influence & Baseball:
  • Dad was a minor league baseball player (White Sox organization), later turning focus to coaching and supporting Frank and his brothers in youth sports. “My dad was a minor league baseball player...and that influenced my growing up because we were all about baseball.” (13:07)

Growing Up: Sports, Injuries, and Identity

• Baseball Obsession:
  • Grew up playing and loving baseball; his whole identity centered on being an athlete. “It was my whole life was baseball as a kid.” (17:36)
• Injury That Changed Everything:
  • In ninth grade, a football injury (torn ACL never fully repaired) derailed sports ambitions. Impacted his ability to play baseball as a catcher and marked a key shift in his life. “I went for a jet sweep...got hit by somebody high and low, and my ACL was just snapped. So. And it's still. I never had it fixed.” (38:33)
• Identity Crisis & Letting Go of Sports:
  • Struggled when baseball ended, especially in disappointing his father and losing a core part of his self-image. “I didn't want to tell my dad that I wasn't going to play baseball anymore because that was my whole identity growing up...it was heartbreaking to me because...The relationship with my dad was really based on that.” (29:16)

Family Stories, Humor, and Shaping a Comedian

• Household Stories & Parent Roles:
  • Mom as classic homemaker, heavily outnumbered by boisterous boys and the main “room service” provider.
  • Frank’s humor and impressions started as a way to deflect from being the “chubby, quiet kid” and to fit in. “I was very quiet. Oh, I was super quiet and shy. I mean I was a little fat kid...Humor was a way of, you know, getting out of things.” (16:08, 25:44)
• Siblings & Neighborhood Antics:
  • Stories of neighborhood games, injuries, and their dad being the main neighborhood coach—throwing wiffle balls and recycling the same jokes for decades.
• Dealing with Setbacks:
  • Frank discusses a natural tendency to “move on” after setbacks—baseball, canceled shows, or injuries—often quickly compartmentalizing and not dwelling on disappointments. “Anything that's bad that happens. I just kind of stopped thinking about it...when my show got canceled, I was just like, well, all right.” (48:51)

Comedic Craft: Impressions, Process, and Perfectionism

• Early Impressions:
  • Impressions and mimicry go way back; Frank started by imitating teachers, family, and local characters, then moved on to TV and sports personalities. “Are you answering the phone back in the day, doing different voices? ... No, I was very quiet, but I did impressions of my friends and teachers.” (16:08, 65:12)
• Developing Iconic Impressions:
  • Goes into technical detail about finding the core of voices (e.g., linking Kermit to John C. Reilly and Mark Ruffalo), using throat placement and pitch manipulation. “So if you're up in Kermit the Frog, you bring it down a little bit and get a bubble in your throat. That's John C. Reilly. Add some air, and it's Mark Ruffalo. Bring it down, it's Paul Giamatti...” (56:14)
• Reflections on Signature Characters – John Madden, Jon Gruden:
  • Shares the origins of his John Madden impression, including how it went from mimicry to full-blown character, and how Madden himself initially disliked (even “hated”) Frank’s act. “No, he hated me…he doesn't like you at all, he doesn't like you mate. We're trying to get him to like you.” (58:39) “The dead on impression only gets you so far. It's just a recognition laugh. You have to play it and become over the top...it becomes a character.” (61:29)
• On SNL/TV and the Pressure to Keep It Fresh:
  • Constant challenge of audience expectation for “the next voice”; social media era wants dead-on accuracy versus exaggerated characters. “My comedy is always talking about other people...they're always like, what's next? Who are you working on? ... I don't tell people don't talk a lot about what my own life is.” (52:15)
• Balancing Perfectionism, Passion, and Family:
  • Caliendo reflects on being a perfectionist, only rarely feeling true “passion”—primarily when it comes to his family, not career. “The only thing I have passion for is my kids. My family has become my passion.” (50:16)

Notable Challenges: Fatherhood and Medical Scares

• Terrifying Allergy Incident with Son:
  • A moving story about his son suffering an anaphylactic reaction to hidden cashews in Italy, highlighting the parental anxiety and helplessness in another country. “We were in Florence...my son was having a weird, weird. Just something was wrong...His body's almost purple. So he's, he's in. He's got the anaphylaxis going on.” (69:53) “The doctor says, did you give him epinephrine? ... always just use it just in case...He was in such shock that he was out of it for the next couple days.” (71:44)
• Long-Term Trauma & Caution:
  • Describes his son’s reluctance to try new foods and the emotional aftermath—panic returning even stateside upon revisiting Italian restaurants.
    “He had to go and sit in the parking lot for a while, and I went and sat with him. But it was. It. It's that type of. That moment was a moment of. Oh, my God.” (73:22)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Frank on Being a Quiet, Heavyset Kid:
  “I was a little fat kid...They said they had every word to describe you besides fat. Right. Husky. Husky for chubby. But never. Nobody would ever tell you the truth...Humor was a way of getting out of things.” (16:08)
• On Telling His Dad He Was Quitting Baseball:
  “I remember crying on the phone and my dad—the one moment I remember with my dad because my dad is pretty stoic in those types of things...There’s no ‘I love you’s’ going on.” (30:12)
• On Impressions & Identity:
  “My goal in entertainment was to get to become a guest on The Tonight Show and Letterman. I did it. Well, then. I didn't really have any other things that I really couldn't wait to do.” (51:27)
• On Meeting John Madden After Years of Impressions:
  “I finally met him...his grandkids were there, and they cracked up, and it was like—I get it now. So it was kind of that moment and then he didn't mind...” (63:04)
• Advice to His Younger Self:
  “My advice would be: pay attention. Those two words are something...Pay attention in school. Pay attention to what people say. Listen to people's names...” (75:30)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Frank’s Introduction & Socials: 06:13–07:39
• Baseball Obsession, Family Dynamics: 10:09–18:51
• Winning National Title, AAU Baseball: 19:03–22:06
• Letting Go of the Baseball Dream: 28:19–30:12
• Discussing High School Depression & Injury: 37:33–39:39
• Long-Term Effects of Injury, Avoiding Medical Care: 42:16–44:55
• On Identity, Passion, and Coping with Setbacks: 48:27–51:27
• Impression Theory (Kermit to C. Reilly/Ruffalo): 56:14–57:43
• Madden Impression Origin & Backstory: 58:39–61:29
• Meeting John Madden: 62:26–63:38
• Family, Medical Scare in Italy: 68:25–74:24
• Advice to Young Frank: 75:30–77:15

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Episode Tone and Language

True to HoneyDew’s mission, the episode is warm, unfiltered, and sometimes self-deprecating, balancing stories of adversity with laughter and camaraderie. There are heartfelt admissions of vulnerability, classic comedic riffing, and plenty of inside-baseball (literally and figuratively) stories about show business and growing up in a blue-collar family.

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Final Thoughts

Frank Caliendo’s episode is one of honest reflection and genuine laughs, seeing him open up about the pains and unexpected pivots that shaped his path. Whether discussing a career-ending injury, uncovering the roots of his comic persona, or navigating fatherhood in crisis, Caliendo reveals the value of “paying attention” and finding humor, no matter how low the moment.

Transcript

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[Frank Caliendo]

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[Ryan Sickler]

Best cheesesteaks in town.

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Janice traded up to Geico Commercial Auto Insurance for her food truck business. We're here where she needs us most.

[Frank Caliendo]

They sure are.

[Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Reporter]

We make it so easy for her to save with customised coverage that grows with her business. Sorry, I just get so emotional talking about saving folks money.

[Ryan Sickler]

Not this onion I'm chopping.

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It's just so beautiful. Oh yeah, nice. The onion.

[Frank Caliendo]

Get a commercial auto insurance quote [e-mail] and see how much you could save. It feels good to Geico.

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[Frank Caliendo]

Hey, good morning.

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[Frank Caliendo]

Yep, they sure are.

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We make it easy for him to save on all his insurance needs all in one place with coverage that fits his business and bottom line. Oh, I shouldn't have looked down.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's all right.

[Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Reporter]

We're so far up here.

[Rocket Money User/Testimonial]

Look at me.

[Frank Caliendo]

Take a deep breath.

[Geico Commercial Auto Insurance Reporter]

I'm good.

[Ryan Sickler]

So good.

[Frank Caliendo]

Get a commercial auto insurance quote [e-mail] and see how much you could save. It feels good. To Geico.

[Ryan Sickler]

Kansas City. I'm headed back your way. Valentine's weekend. That's right. Valentine's weekend. I'll be there Febr 13th and the 14th. Connecticut. Come see me at Comics Roadhouse March 13th and 14th. Get your tickets now at Ryan Sickler.com the Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the Honeydew, y'.

[Frank Caliendo]

All.

[Ryan Sickler]

We're over here doing it in the night pants studios. I am Ryan Sickler. Ryan Sickler.com and Ryan Sickler on all your social media, starting this episode like I start them all by saying thank you. Thank you for not only watching this show and supporting this show, but anything I do, tours, whatever, specials, all of it. You guys are the best. And if you got to have more, I'm telling you, you gotta check out the Patreon. There's more than the Honeydew with you all going on over there. But the Honeydew with you all is this show with you guys. And it is. It's the best show on the Internet. I swear to God, I love my job because of you. It's the wildest stories you've ever heard. Hundreds of. We've been doing it for years now. It's five bucks a month, a cup of coffee. Go enjoy yourself. All right. That's the biz. You guys know what we're doing here? We highlight the low lights. I always say these are the stories behind the storytellers. Very excited to have this guest here with us. First time on the Dude. Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Caliendo. Welcome to the Honeydew, Frank.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I'm here. Energy just went up.

[Ryan Sickler]

I needed to fire you up, buddy.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's been a long time coming. Thank you for doing this.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Great to be you being here. Before we dive into your stories right there. If you'd like, plug everything you want.

[Frank Caliendo]

Everything I got right now. Frank onstage.com for whenever this comes out. So just take a look there. I'm traveling all over the country. I did Frank onstage.com instead of Frank Caliendo.com because people struggled spelling caliendo.

[Ryan Sickler]

I thought you were going to say a Frank Caliendo out there. Got it and was like the proctologist.

[Frank Caliendo]

There's a. There's a butt.

[The RealReal User/Testimonial]

Come on.

[The RealReal Advertiser]

Really?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. And he won't give it up.

[Frank Caliendo]

I don't know. No. Well, he's out there. He does. I have Frank Caliendo.com but so people don't have to spell caliento. And you notice I don't even know how to say my own name. I say caliendo. Caliendo. Caliendo. That's what my dad Says there's no E in it. So I don't know where he's getting caliento. But Frank onstage.com for all the dates. January's Omaha, February's. January's got Omaha, Naples, Florida. And February. I know has Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Improv. You ever been off the hook comedy club in Naples?

[Ryan Sickler]

No. This is the one everyone tells me about. So great.

[Frank Caliendo]

I've never been there and people are talking about.

[Ryan Sickler]

I've never heard a bad thing about it, only good things. And that's rare. You know that.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. So frankonstage.com just take a look at dates all over the place and rank Caliendo on all social media.

[Ryan Sickler]

There you go.

[Frank Caliendo]

Frank Caliendo. You have to spell that one, but I'll come up. Just pictured. Just search John Gruden impression.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was gonna say I'm. I'm excited to sit here because I'm such a fan. I follow all your stuff, love the impressions, the Madden, the Gruden, all of it. But I really want to get to know you, the guy behind all this stuff. So let's go back to the big. Go ahead.

[Frank Caliendo]

Where did we work together? Because you.

[Ryan Sickler]

You were newer years ago. I think I was the m. I was the opener, not even the feature. And it was. Had to be either Irvine or Ontario because I.

[Frank Caliendo]

Bringing that up to me somewhere else. We were talking about it and then I was like, was I a jerk? Because I never. I always. I try. I try to be nice, but you never know what kind of day you're having or something like that. You have to be. You don't. Real people don't realize all the time how careful you have to be to not just live your inside feelings outside. Like you just. I've seen it with people where people have said some terrible things about people. I'm like, no, no, that's a good person. You just hit them on a bad day. They're having lunch. Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Bugging them at lunch.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, it's not even that. It's just like you. You don't know what's going through in somebody's life.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. My mom could have just passed. You know what I mean?

[Frank Caliendo]

I'm always amazed.

[Ryan Sickler]

I try to think like that. Like, all right, let's. Maybe. Maybe something's going on. Maybe he just found out the worst news of his life. Yeah, right. An today we'll get.

[Frank Caliendo]

But I. I don't even know. I. And maybe I. I'm doubting you're this type of person, but maybe you are. Maybe. And when you. When you're headlining the club or whatever. Like, there are people who don't let anybody else in the green room at all that are on the show.

[Ryan Sickler]

That guy.

[Frank Caliendo]

And when. I didn't think so, but I just want to be careful because it's your show. But it was one of those things where I've heard people more recently doing that a lot. Like, so other people on the show, they don't want them in the green rhythm with them. Okay. I mean, it just seems like you're all part of the show.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, I get that you're the headliner. And I've had it happen to me too. Where the. Even when I was featuring, they're like. And they would stand outside the door like, he don't want anybody in there. Right. I was like, I. I gotta go use the public restroom. Like, yeah, I can't even pee in there.

[Frank Caliendo]

You know what I mean?

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, I can't.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. Just I. One of my things.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like that.

[Frank Caliendo]

One of my things is.

[Ryan Sickler]

But we're like you said, we're all part of this show. If you're a dick, then you get out.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. I don't want you bringing in your relatives to hang out during the show. But if you're on the show and I just kind of my call, who's in the green room for that. But if you're on the show, I think you should be. I think you should be in there. I mean.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, you were great. You were great. So let's jump back to the beginning. Where are you originally from?

[Frank Caliendo]

I was born in Chicago, Illinois. Elmwood Park, Illinois, is where I spent my first four couple years. And then my parents moved to Addison, Illinois. So it's right outside of out of Chicago. And then When I was 4, we moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin. My dad was a district sales representative for the Caloric Corporation, which is like stoves and stuff like that. And they. What happened was back in the day, there were all those mom and pop stores and they would have people sell for different companies, would sell their products to all these little stores. Well, then the big box stores came along and all that just disappeared. You're just selling a bunch to Best Buy. You're selling to like four different places. So that. That for him kind of went the way of the dodo, so to speak. But so I grew up mainly, I would say I'm from Wisconsin, even though anytime I'm on a TV show, they say I'm from Chicago. So it gets a bigger rating there. Hopefully.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, right.

[Frank Caliendo]

A lot of times I've had it happen.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you have siblings?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I have two brothers.

[Ryan Sickler]

And who's the oldest?

[Frank Caliendo]

I'm the oldest.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

My brother Rico. That's his real name.

[Ryan Sickler]

You have a brother named rico?

[Frank Caliendo]

Rico Caliendo, two Cs. He's actually. He's actually in a. In a tribute band. He just started doing this fairly recently. It's a who tribute band.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wait, hold on. Why Rico? Is it a family name or is that. Is that his nickname? Is it really, like, Ricardo?

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, here's. So here's the thing. Let me go. So Italian. So it's Frankie, Rico and Terry.

[Ryan Sickler]

Terry. They got tired, so, like.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, my mom's not Italian, so she's like. Like, I need something. But the legend has it with Rico. That was. My dad gave old school Italian. Right? Like, kind of my dad's. Might as well. He was born 1940. Might as well been born in caveman era. But it was the choices he gave to my mom were Rico, Rocco, or Rolo or something. But it was. Yeah, but it's. But Rico was the choice. And in Italian, Rico is Enrico, which is Enrique or Henry, but he's just Rico.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that his birth name? Rico.

[Frank Caliendo]

Rico. R, I C O. Rico Lewis. Caliento. I'm Frank Lee, believe it or not. My parents named me, frankly.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

And frankly. And my mom still thinks that all three of our middle names are Lee. She will say all three of your middle names are Lee. I'm like, no, no. Rico's middle name is Louis. He's Rico Lewis. So she doesn't even know what we're named.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

And that's been a while. That's not just because she's old, but she's. That. That is helping.

[Ryan Sickler]

So then you settle in that area, and this is where you start going to school and like, sort of putting your roots down.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. My dad was a minor league baseball player. White Sox organization. Yeah. No. Went to spring training three times. If you Google Frank Caliendo and batting average, I think it comes up. He. I think he only hit.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, are you a junior?

[Frank Caliendo]

My middle name is different.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's what my dad did. His. His father was like, I don't want to do the seconds and the third. So they got the same first and last, but they changed the middle name so that they're not Junior Senior.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. And a lot of time if your name is. And we're Italian, if you're junior, people call you Junior.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[The RealReal User/Testimonial]

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[The RealReal Advertiser]

Is supported by the Real Real. Meet Christine. She loves shopping, and this is the sound of fashion overload. Too many fabulous things, not enough space. So Christine started selling with the RealReal.

[The RealReal User/Testimonial]

I've always loved collecting designer pieces, Gucci bags, Prada heels. But my style keeps evolving. Selling with the RealReal. Game changer. I earn more. And they do everything.

[The RealReal Advertiser]

Seriously. Just drop off your items or schedule a pickup. We handle the photos, descriptions, pricing, even shipping. You just sit back and watch your items. Sell fast to our 40 million members.

[The RealReal User/Testimonial]

And I get peace of mind knowing I earn more selling with the RealReal than anywhere else.

[The RealReal Advertiser]

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[Frank Caliendo]

So it was like they didn't want me to be called Junior or Little Frank. Yeah, that's bullshit.

[Ryan Sickler]

We had a Little Jerry in our neighborhood. He's like in his 50s now. He's still Little Jerry. It sticks with you.

[Frank Caliendo]

I remember answering the phone at the house because everybody used to answer the community house phone. They'd ask for Frank. Do you want Frank the father, Frank the son, or Frank the holy Ghost? So, I mean, it was.

[Ryan Sickler]

I want to jump ahead for a second. When you're doing that because I forget the old. How old are you now?

[Frank Caliendo]

50. I was born in 74.

[Ryan Sickler]

You look great.

[Frank Caliendo]

I'm going to be 52.

[Ryan Sickler]

52. I'm 50 too right now.

[Frank Caliendo]

Okay.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are you like with people? Are you answering the phone back in the day, doing different voices?

[Frank Caliendo]

No, because I wasn't, I didn't. I was very quiet. Oh, I was super quiet and shy. I mean I was a little fat kid. As a chubby, you know, they said they had every word to describe you besides fat. Right. Husky.

[Ryan Sickler]

Husky for chubby.

[Frank Caliendo]

But never. Nobody would ever tell you the truth. And which would have helped because if you call fat all the time, you can go one of two ways. You can just go psycho on it or you can go, I'm going to fix this someone. I fixed it a little bit.

[Ryan Sickler]

Bit.

[Frank Caliendo]

But I look back at some pictures. Is getting off track a little bit. But I. I look back at some pictures of me maybe 15 years ago and I was huge. Like nobody told me. So tell. If you got a really heavy friend, tell them. They might not know because I wouldn't look at the mirror at that time. So what was the question?

[Ryan Sickler]

Minor league ball player. How's he get into that? Because let's think about it.

[Frank Caliendo]

Kind of like moonlight.

[Ryan Sickler]

40S.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

So was he's playing in like the same 60s, his 20s.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. He went to Eastern Illinois University.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

Played college ball there. He'd played at Triton Junior College, which is where Kirby Puckett went.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

That was his always his thing. He didn't. I don't think they had a draft. I don't know. He just was a self like how.

[Ryan Sickler]

Back then do you even get like, do you just walk on and try out?

[Frank Caliendo]

I think so. Yeah. Yeah. It just, you know, the kids who are athletes can play a little bit. He had no training, nothing. They didn't have anything like that. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

They're not doing the.

[Frank Caliendo]

They're doing basically the sandlot too.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then going to a job.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he only played a few years of that.

[Ryan Sickler]

What position?

[Frank Caliendo]

Shortstop. But he didn't have a good enough arm. He should have been the second baseman probably. But that influenced my growing up because we were all about baseball. It was my whole life was baseball as a kid.

[Ryan Sickler]

He still stay in at all that he coach or he coached your team?

[Frank Caliendo]

Because everything we would come home and my dad would throw. We'd be playing in the side yard. Wiffle balls. The whole neighborhood was over and he was pitching to everybody and playing and he was fun. He still does all the same jokes, jokes he does, you know it was doing 40, 50 years ago. It's all the same bits. So he was that, he was the, he was the dad in the, in the whole neighborhood. He still lives at the same house. Okay. He's still there. There's still blood on the front porch where I, I tripped. Didn't have my shoes tied. One of my shoes wasn't tied. Chasing my brother. Slip landed right here. That's the scar right here. And notice the line in my eyebrow? Yeah, that's running into the, the bricks on the. Or on the side of the door of the front porch. Nobody ever cleaned it. I think it was just a memory of tire shoes. My parents giving me the lesson. So like I said, heavily influenced. He coached basketball, all the sports we played sports. He didn't really coach football.

[Ryan Sickler]

Now you say this is, he's doing your little Leagues. Is that also go to like high school and stuff? Is he.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, he didn't, he didn't coach us in high school. He coached our AAU Junior Olympic team. We were 1988 national champions.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn, dude.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I was, I was an all American.

[Ryan Sickler]

Were you really?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, we won the Nationals 14 and under. Your team with the Wisconsin All Stars? No. Yeah, we had a couple guys that got drafted and played either high level college ball or like I said, got drafted.

[Ryan Sickler]

And is this a team like your dad put together?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, there were tryouts for it.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean man, he had an eye for it then too.

[Frank Caliendo]

We started AU baseball in Wisconsin. There was AU basketball and AU baseball was just getting started. Hell yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

So your dad's starting that back then?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. And we had some, we had some tryouts and there were some kids. They had like I was a decent hitter but there were some players that were like legit player players. We went as the 14 and under team as I think we went as an at large.

[Ryan Sickler]

And where do you go? Where's Nationals?

[Frank Caliendo]

Urbandale, Iowa. So but Kirsten, you know that she knows Urbandale, she's from there. Beaver Fields, you know Beaver. The Merle Hell Mall. So that that's where we'd all hang.

[Ryan Sickler]

We're going to talk about that on, on the other episode.

[Frank Caliendo]

So but on the 18 and under Wisconsin team that also they found out about the A tournament the same year. There were a couple of pretty good players. One, the best player was a guy by the name of Craig Counsel.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

So Council, who's now the manager of the Cubs was the.

[Ryan Sickler]

Listen, can I just say that dude was so good also he's like the Dick Clark of baseball Council. Still looks like he's got that boyish face. You know what I'm talking about? Was he a marlin? Was he a marlin?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, he won his theories as a marlin, as a diamondback.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was like, Is this guy 13 years old?

[Frank Caliendo]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

He always just had that boyish youthful face to him. Yeah, he still kind of does, I think.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, no, no, no, there's. Yeah, there's just something about that look. And the interesting thing about him is we used to work at a place called Mike Hegan's Grand Slam. Mike Hegan, who was a player in the major leagues years ago. He was also the color analysis guy for the Cleveland up until maybe 15 years ago or something like that. But we worked for him and Craig worked there as well. And my brother used to throw him batting practice and soft toss, you know, the little toss in front.

[Ryan Sickler]

Your brother take a little bit of the credit?

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, yeah, that's his. That's his. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, I still VP to Craig County. Your dad's still using all the jokes. He's still telling everyone that it's like.

[Frank Caliendo]

Isn'T your brother Frank Calendo? Yeah, but I used to throw batting practice to Craig Counsel, you know, Used.

[Ryan Sickler]

To throw Greg House. Oh, man. So you had some real talent in that little pocket there.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, there was some. There was a. There were some good people around there. There's a. We had a pitcher that was like 64 and threw 80 miles an hour as a 15 year old.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, man. We had one guy like that in the league too. When you could hear it like, you're.

[Frank Caliendo]

Like, right, that's hard to catch.

[Ryan Sickler]

We're trying to bunt. And he was so good. Scott Sharp. Shout out to Scott Sharp. He. He actually went on. I believe he's like in the front office of the Rangers organization or something like that.

[Frank Caliendo]

Now our guy was Brian Steinbach. Him. The Pookie Bear.

[Ryan Sickler]

And what's he. Where is he now?

[Frank Caliendo]

He's.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's that good. Usually tend to stay somewhere in there if they don't. He's.

[Frank Caliendo]

He was a really. And is a really smart guy. I think he's probably in finance or something. He's. We called him the Pookie Bear. And then I found out J.J. puts who pitched in the. The major leagues. J.J. was like roommates with him. They were there at the, like a year before Tom Brady in Michigan. Damn. But Puts called him the, the. The big German. I'm like Brian Steinbach. He goes, the big German. I'm like, no, the Pookie Bear who was named by our friend Sean Smith, who is the catcher who got drafted, but he named him the Pookie Bear after the Garfield cartoon.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Yeah. So what's dad like as a coach? Is he harder on you or is he not? You know what I mean?

[Frank Caliendo]

I think so. A little.

[Ryan Sickler]

A little bit more on you.

[Frank Caliendo]

Because I was always harder on myself, trying to please my dad. My mom couldn't care less. She didn't know what was going on. Really?

[Ryan Sickler]

Real quick, what's mom doing right now? No, no, back then, is she house mom or homemaker?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, no, no, she. Yeah, she raised legit, bro.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, if you're really doing it.

[Frank Caliendo]

Three little boys, and we were horrific. I mean, not in terms of. I think we just emulated my dad. And we were like.

[Ryan Sickler]

We would.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's just so terrible to even think about now.

[Ryan Sickler]

But we would want.

[Frank Caliendo]

We would call it room service, and we. We would get breakfast delivered to us.

[Ryan Sickler]

Your mom did love you.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, yeah, it was. I mean, she was the best. And she put up with crap and, like, stuff. I would never. If my kids did that to my mom. My daughter actually does that to my wife a little bit. If my son does it, I'm like, you're. No. And he's 21 and he's still trying to pull some of that stuff sometimes. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's your. Listen, if you. If you can drink, you legally, you can get your own. You can get that yourself. Yeah, my daughter, who's 19, I just. Whatever she wants, I don't care. There's different sets of rules for the boys.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm like. I like to act like I'm like, we're not doing it. And then I'm like, what do you want?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, it's. I don't know why. And it's. But some of that's going to happen in life, too. I mean, it's. It's funny because I would do things with my. My own daughter. I know we're getting off track and. But that's what I do. But my own daughter, where I would say things like, girls can't do that. And she would be like, yes, I can't. And I would actually do it that way. And people would see me say something like, that's terrible. I'm like. Like, look at her reaction. You don't think she's going to deal with that in parts of her life? It's better than telling her she can do everything, you know, and just Even if she can't, like, go. And you got to work for some stuff and you're going to have to fight some things.

[Ryan Sickler]

There are some things in life where you do try and you're like, okay, I'm not good at this and I can't do it. But you don't know that until you go out there and try to prove yourself. Right or wrong. It's always.

[Frank Caliendo]

But my whole point was people are going to say things to try and knock you down, of course, and tell and give you reasons why you can't do something. And they're going to be those types of terrible reasons be and have that fight in you. And I think that's. I mean, some of the things I see in my kids are things I try to help them with that. I was always very complacent as a kid. I was like I was saying earlier, very quiet. I was the type of kid. And because I was a chubby kid, I always wore sweatpants because clothes didn't fit me right. So I was like always wearing sweatpants. And other kids would make fun of me for that kind of stuff. But I, you know, I didn't, I didn't. I may. I don't think it scarred me or anything, but it did. Humor was a way of, you know, getting out of things. So. But I see my kids and when they're being complacent and stuff because they're. They're both smarter than me by far.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, and Frank, my daughter just sat down and did math with me because I keep telling her, look, I got.

[Frank Caliendo]

You didn't do any of the math?

[Ryan Sickler]

No, no, no, no. I wasn't helping her. Yeah, she was helping me. She goes, do you know how to do decimals? I'm like, kinda. I mean, I know how to move it over and stuff, but if you're. She's like, she gave me four problems. I got two wrong.

[Frank Caliendo]

What grade?

[Ryan Sickler]

She's in fifth grade.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, third is about where they lose you sometimes. Especially with the other kinds of math. Sue.

[Ryan Sickler]

I tell her all the time, stella, as soon as you start putting letters in there, Y's and X's and A's and B's, I was like, go to mom or I'll. I'll hire a tutor. Because I promise you, I don't know either.

[Frank Caliendo]

I'll sit and I can solve for the variables early. As soon as you got. I start to get lost a little bit when it's. There's a fraction involved and you flip it on the other side.

[Ryan Sickler]

She's teaching me. And she's right, though. She's right when she tells me. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So wait, let's go back. So are you. This. Baseball playing baseball with a dad who was in minor leagues? Are you thinking as you grow up, like, this is what you want to do? Do you want to try to. Probably college and stuff?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. And I played through high school. I was. I was pretty good in high school. I was a better hitter than anything I caught. So I was behind the plate, which is where I got a lot of humor from. I was. I was always messing with the batters and trying to get the umps on my side. So there was a lot of that. But I played. I was all conference one of. I don't know which team, but I was all conference my. So my junior year and then my senior year, I was. I was in a terrible slump and just mentally kind of. I don't know what I want to do and that type of stuff. I actually went to school, University of Wisconsin, Parkside, which is in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And I was going to play there. I didn't get A scholarship, Division 2. I didn't get a scholarship or anything, but I didn't even know what I wanted to do at school, so I had no idea. I got there and was like, I don't think I'm really going to play. I had some classes at a calculus class at night, and I was. It was a four hour class with like a European teacher that I could barely understand.

[Ryan Sickler]

Four hour calculus, I'm saying, like.

[Frank Caliendo]

And I know. And the funny thing is I ended up dropping that class. I couldn't. I had no idea what was going on. And I took a Spanish two instead, which I already knew, so it was pretty easy to get through that. But that was. That was my rap. That was. I used to work at those batting cages where Craig Counsel would come and. Or even worked at times.

[Ryan Sickler]

So baseball was your life.

[Frank Caliendo]

That was everything I was. I would watch the Natural before every game.

[Ryan Sickler]

Would you really? That was your gladiator?

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, yeah, I would watch. I mean, I just. And if, if, if I got to the right part, sometimes I just ended one of the Roy Hobbs home runs and I'd be like, this is enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then you're going out fired up to play.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, yeah. And a little bit of Field of Dreams, too. But it was mostly. It was mostly the Natural. I mean, I watched that. I mean, a VHS tape that, you know, wore it out, blew it apart. Yeah. So great. 1 yeah. So it's one of my favorites. So baseball was where I thought it was going. And I remember my dad. This was, this is one of those tough moments for me where I didn't want to tell my dad that I wasn't going to play baseball anymore because that was my whole identity growing up. I mean, I kind of dealt with that with my, my son for, with math stuff. Like he was way ahead in math when he was young and it caught up to him some, but he just didn't like, like people. My son's very funny and, and dark. Like his, you know, his WI fi or whatever it is on his phone that you, you know, that you is Epstein's phone. That's the kind of stuff that my, my son does. So people see that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

What are they gonna drop? Yeah, I'm not dropping. I'm not airdropping something to that. But people would say, I heard, I heard you really love math. He goes, I don't love math. Math. I'm just really good at it. No. As like a 10 or 11 year old kid. So. But I saw in him when he lost that identity where he didn't want to be way ahead in math anymore and didn't care about it. The same I, that happened with me in baseball. And I, I remember talking my dad and I was crying on the phone. Tell him. I, I don't, I, I just, I don't think I'm gonna hate baseball. This is in college. Oh, you're in college at this point, I'm gonna, I'm not gonna play baseball.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you even try to try it out or anything?

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, they were gonna have me on the team. I was walking on the team, but I don't know if I was going to really play or anything. Guys were just better than me. But. And the, the baseball coach, Pete Baron, boom. He actually got me into the school and all that stuff. He, he got everything taken care of. I was just like, this just isn't for me. I'm gonna need to work hard to do decently in school. And I remember crying on the phone and my dad like the, the one moment I remember with my dad because my dad is pretty stoic in those types of things. There's no I love you is going on.

[Rocket Money Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, this is a man born in World War II era.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And, and played baseball and, you know.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. I mean he's just, he's an old school guy and. But I remember and him just telling me, frank, that's, that's fine. It doesn't matter. We knew that was going to end someday anyways. I'm like, I know, but it just was. It was heartbreaking to me because it wasn't just with the time I had with my dad and the, the. The relationship with my dad was really based on that. But it was, what's my identity going to be? Who am I if I'm not this guy who's always just going out to play strikeout in the schoolyard? So that was, that was a. That was a moment, a revelation moment. Like, what am I. What am I going to do? I did like sports. And I do wish that I'd gone back. If I could. I know there's a question like this later, but if I could go back, I would pay more attention. I always tell kids, when I. When I go to talk to kids at schools and stuff like that, like in an acting class or something, thing I always tell them, pay attention to. If you want to be in this world, listen. During history and social studies classes, English and literature classes, all those types of classes, learn all that stuff. Don't just. I just walked through it. I mean, I remember taking history tests that basically I was just, you know, I had a hat on and looking at somebody else's papers.

[Ryan Sickler]

We had to answer Keith, because the teacher didn't change it year. The seniors will pass it down.

[Frank Caliendo]

We're not learning that shit.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't know. I mean, I've heard of the Ottoman Empire. Couldn't tell you a goddamn thing about it because I'm just going.

[Frank Caliendo]

I thought it was a place a lot of people put their feet.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Rocket Money User/Testimonial]

Which.

[Frank Caliendo]

Which there's gotta be. There has to be a company that makes Ottomans called the Ottoman Empire.

[Ryan Sickler]

There were many people that did it. I mean, how else they had to be the Ottoman people? How could you not be the Ottoman Empire? And you didn't discover Ottoman. We're always dangling.

[Frank Caliendo]

We were. We deal in flour.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't know, we deal in flower.

[Frank Caliendo]

So I do wish that I had paid more attention and taken acting classes and drama classes, all that type of stuff, because if you want to. If you want to get into comedy or whatever, just knowing a little bit more than somebody else that you can strike a memory in their head. I remember Billy Crystal and I'll throw in an impression here because it's a Billy Crystal, but Billy Crystal saying, Robin, he knows everything. It's unbelievable. And Robin Williams is like, well, I read the paper a lot, you know, and so, you know, that tells you how long ago that was. But it was that Billy Crystal. Just saying how much Robin Williams knows. It's like he knows everything. Unbelievable. A little bit of everything. Some of the wrong things, you know, but it was like, like those were the types of things that I didn't really understand until later that I wish I could go back because it was just sports and it was just getting through school. I. I had a. I guess it's interesting because I thought I did much better in high school than I did you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Grades wise.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. Because my kids looked at my grades. My wife found my report card. Where do you find that? I don't know.

[Ryan Sickler]

I gotta ask a woman. They find everything online. 100. I've been trying to get my. My old SAT results. Oh, I'm just.

[Frank Caliendo]

Do you know what you got?

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, I'm. I'm gonna tell you what the I got. I'm comfortable telling you because I'm sitting here successful today. But I think the first time I took it, I got a 860. And then I was like everyone, but I did all the right things.

[Frank Caliendo]

Pretty good for Baltimore. I was sober when I talked your class.

[Ryan Sickler]

All my friends, all of them, Frank, they're like, oh, I got wasted the night before. I got a 12, 1300. I was like, oh, all right, maybe I should. Maybe I should.

[Frank Caliendo]

121300 is pretty good.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's what I'm saying. They're drunk and they're doing that.

[Frank Caliendo]

Smart friends.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm like, yeah, I did have good friends. Smart friends. I was in. This is what I'm saying. I was in all the gifted and talented classes, but math was my kryptonite and I would beg them, can I please just go to remedial math? And like, nope, it's all or none. I'm like, I. I can't.

[Frank Caliendo]

And that's not like that in today's day and age. Like they'll. They'll isolate and you're really good at something. Try and build that. See, I didn't even. I didn't. I didn't. I. I've never even been drunk in my life. People don't know that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can I tell you how I improved the next time cuz it went up?

[Frank Caliendo]

You didn't.

[Ryan Sickler]

870, bro. 10 points. I said, at this rate it's going to take me 40 tests to get anywhere. So that's what I'm.

[Frank Caliendo]

You could add two together, still not get the whole.

[Ryan Sickler]

But I agree with you cuz something I like. Soccer was my identity. I played soccer in the community college. I was all juco. It was soccer Soccer. Soccer. But whether I was, you know, World cup great or not, that's not a sport on this continent that pays or as a real future back then. Back then.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

So I agree with you. I wish that even with college instead of, you know, because when you decide you want to be something, whether it's a doctor, whatever, it's all narrowed and focused into this. I wish I had gone back and taken a business class and just, you know, learn. Rounded myself a little more.

[Frank Caliendo]

Being well rounded is such a.

[Ryan Sickler]

He focused on this one thing. Because when you do, you might be great at this, but it's also like, man, you're ignorant to a lot of other here.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I mean, I'm in entertainment because I didn't know what else I would do. I mean, that's really what it is. This had to work. And I could never go back because I. I don't think I could work for somebody. Work for some, you know, for really to really work for someone.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you give it up and what's your shift? Where do you. What do you move into? And I just start getting your dad's support.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. So I. And he, he was like, always, C's are great. Sees like, he didn't care about grades, so my mom would want us to get grades. You know, he'd give us a dollar or ten dollars for a report card or something. But he's like, I got Cs. Nothing's wrong with me. You know, just like. But he was like, you're just like, yeah, it's. That's not what you're saying. All the other times when you say, can I borrow $5? No, I don't have it. You know, it's like. So I just. I just start paying more attention to school. So in, in high school, it turns out I only had like a. A three one or something like that. And I like that one semester I had like a two, nine. And I had. I just had some. I don't know, I was just kind of. I don't know if it was depressed or what, but I just didn't know where I was going. And, you know, I was confused. There's like lots of. Of kids. I think that was my time. And then I started going when I was in college, I was like, you know, this is a way. I'm at a school in a different place.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can we rewind for a second? Talking about being depressed in high school. And, you know, I ask for info before you get here. And something happened to you in the ninth grade.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, well, yeah, That's. That's true. I. I skipped over that because we're playing football.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, this was a football injury. Football.

[Frank Caliendo]

I was pretty. I was the same size I am now. Know when I was 14, 15 years old. So we won that national AAU championship in 1988. Then I go to, in the fall of 1988, start freshman football. Well, I was a running back, and I was just bowling over people, and I was pretty fast. I mean, when you look at it today, you're like, you know what? Not fast. And I ran somewhere around a 4, 9, supposedly, but, you know, and that's. I was probably the fastest on the team. But we went up and played the sophomores at Waukesha South High School. So our high school was horning middle school. And that was sixth. Seventh. I'm sorry. Seventh, ninth grade. No, sorry.

[Ryan Sickler]

I hear it every time.

[Frank Caliendo]

So seventh, eighth, ninth grade. And then sophomore through senior year was at Waukesha South High School. Well, we went up and scrimmage of sophomores. I went for a jet sweep out wide right. I got hit by somebody high and low, and my ACL was just snapped. So. And it's still. I never had it fixed. So this day. Yeah, it didn't. It doesn't. The. The ligaments don't grow back. Oh, so it's 75, 80 torn, maybe.

[Ryan Sickler]

More than just like dangling in there.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. There's no cartilage in there.

[Ryan Sickler]

I've never gone to get it cleaned up.

[Frank Caliendo]

I had it cleaned up, scoped.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay. Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

But I didn't have it reconstructed. And that was the time of Sean Elliott being at Arizona. And I don't remember where he played first, but there was the bit. Their big knee braces that all the linemen wear now.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

Like athletes who are running backs and stuff like that were wearing those at that time.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, Buddy of mine had one, too. And I remember, I feel like the scar looked like something out of Frankenstein. It was like long, ugly scar on the knee and.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, well, I didn't have. I only had the three dots in there from the scope or whatever it was, so. But if you look at me now, it's funny because I'll show people. They're like, your calves are huge. I go. One of them is. If you look closely, one of my legs is like. Like. Like it's.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's not even tennis. Tennis calves. One's big and one's not.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, yeah, like that tennis arm. Well, the other one. The other one would be. I got ping pong arm, which is the Same thing.

[Ryan Sickler]

The.

[Frank Caliendo]

The. The. For a normal human, the left one, which is the bad one, would be pretty good. But then they see the right and they're like, that is godly. So it's. And you don't really notice it until. Are we full up and down here? There.

[Ryan Sickler]

You want to stand up?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. If I show you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Let's see it.

[Frank Caliendo]

Put your foot on the table. If I go, well, no, you got to see straight. So it's. You probably can't see it in that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Kirsten, how would he be able to show us this calf?

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, I'm not going to show the cap. I can just show you. But I'll show you. You can just have the reaction. We could have. Do an insert. That's if my leg is straight. No. So if you look. Look at what that leg does.

[Ryan Sickler]

This left calf, for those of you listening, looks just like both of my calves.

[The RealReal Advertiser]

Calf.

[Ryan Sickler]

That right one's a. That right was something.

[Frank Caliendo]

If you could isolate one small body part for world championships, I'd have a chance, bro.

[Ryan Sickler]

If there was a right calf championship, you would take the gold.

[Frank Caliendo]

I would. I would. There's some other people that think they.

[Ryan Sickler]

Could even place it, but that right.

[Frank Caliendo]

Calf world, it's a hero. Legendary.

[Ryan Sickler]

Listen, it's so funny. If your left calf was you playing baseball and your right calf was your dad. That's what it is. That's what.

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[Ryan Sickler]

So, wait, now you've got this ACL tear.

[Frank Caliendo]

But you're.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're bread and butter is baseball.

[Frank Caliendo]

So I was a catcher in baseball.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. And you're squatting and sitting the whole.

[Frank Caliendo]

So I can't bend the left leg.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are you doing the. Are you doing what?

[Frank Caliendo]

The Benito Santiago. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are you putting the leg out?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are you. Left leg out?

[Frank Caliendo]

It wasn't out, but it couldn't bend all the way, so I caught off kilter and my back became wrenched. Everything I should. I'm the type of person who never faked. There were like. There were like 15, 20 years where I didn't go to a doctor or dentist or anything. I just hate to set a dentist or anything.

[Ryan Sickler]

Nothing.

[The RealReal Advertiser]

No.

[Frank Caliendo]

I didn't want to hear bad news. I had a tooth that I. I was eating, like, juji fruits or something.

[Ryan Sickler]

In those will pull it, too.

[Frank Caliendo]

It pulled the filling out. It pulled the filling out. And I didn't. I. I had a temporary put in, and 15 years later, I went to get it looked at again, and they finally fixed it. I was. I was just so worried about what they were going to say I'd done by Not. Because when I go. I did have somebody look at it in between. There was a dentist in Cleveland.

[Ryan Sickler]

You.

[Frank Caliendo]

Good.

[Ryan Sickler]

Because, you know, teeth lead into your.

[Frank Caliendo]

Heart, I've been told.

[Ryan Sickler]

But yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

And also not that your jaw can start to basically disintegrate. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Because if they just start eating it up.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. It's just. It starts. It becomes lesser. The bone becomes less and less. But luckily, I have this giant CRO Magnon head that when I had it finally fixed, like. Like last year, it was maybe in the last. It's been in the last year and a half. I was like, is there any bone loss? He's like, no. How long has this been? I'm like, 20 years. I mean, it. It came out when I was in high school, so.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. And I was. I was chewing stuff on the other side of my. Like, there was. I pulled a piece out of it at times because I just did not want to hear your. You have no jaw anymore. But I was willing to just. Just face the music that I done this so poorly and not dealt with it. But then I finally was like, I broke. What finally did is I broke another tooth on the other side, and I had to get that fixed. And.

[Ryan Sickler]

And while they were in there, like, you have.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, no, I. I told them. Here's the thing. No, I had no cavities.

[Rocket Money Advertiser]

What?

[Frank Caliendo]

Just the two teeth that were bad.

[Ryan Sickler]

Jeans is what you have.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, I mean, other than the two teeth that fall apart. And my brother has. My brother Terry has some teeth. He was like, let me ask you this.

[Ryan Sickler]

How's Rico's teeth?

[Frank Caliendo]

I think Rico's teeth are fine. They. We don't discuss it. Do you know about any of your siblings?

[Ryan Sickler]

Not once, but the next time I see my brother doing, man.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, my brother told me, he goes, are your teeth crumbling apart? Because. Oh, yeah, I think they're. I think there are some things in our family where teeth are, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, older, fun getting older, conversations change.

[Frank Caliendo]

Terry Bradshaw said that to me once. When you're an old person, you just start talking about your ailments. That's how you greet somebody. Yeah. How. How's your hip, Frank?

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, I want to. I have this question for you. This, this ACL tear, right. Dad doesn't make you or encourage you to go get a surgery or anything?

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, we got the scope. I got it scoped.

[Ryan Sickler]

But outside of that, you're. Are you. Are you telling them how much it's still bugging you or you sort of.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, it didn't bother me. I just didn't have range of motion. Now I look at it.

[Ryan Sickler]

How could you when you ran. I know you said, the gate's a little bit weird.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's a. And it's.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's because you're a catcher and all that.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's my hip. My hip is the issue that for. Okay, so this is 14 years old. 14 years old is when I tear it. And I'm 50, almost 52. So you and I, neither of us really that great on math. 52 -10, 42 -4. 38. 38 years of this leg compensating and my body compensating for this screwed up leg. Well, if you look. I look at it. It's just my. My body's off because it's. And when I walk, my left leg kind of does like a flat step. And so. And people say, don't you want to get it fixed? I'm like, well, I'm 52. Yeah, I'm gonna go through that now.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, you're only 52. No, no, it's fine. It works.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are you in pain? No, no, no.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's why.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's the thing.

[Frank Caliendo]

It doesn't bother me.

[Ryan Sickler]

When I went for this back surgery, the surgeon before I did it said to me, I'm not going to do surgery on you until. Or if this affects your quality of life.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

And if. And when it does, that's when we do this.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I pushed it as long, you know, as I could. It was what, 20, 22. I'm, I'm doing the Troubadour. I'm doing a show at the Troubadour and I'm doing a, you know, my hour and five minutes in. I can't feel either of my legs.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. I was like.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I never felt the left one. Well, I'm like you. I'm like, well, I, I. Who cares? I got the right one.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's called being a guy.

[Ryan Sickler]

I've never felt the left. When it's in pain every day. I'm not going for anything. And then when I couldn't feel either my legs, I sat down. I just. It's so funny because I was going through photos the other night and I came across photos of me sitting on a stool.

[Rocket Money Advertiser]

Stool.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's the only time I've ever sat on a stool to do stand up because I couldn't feel my legs.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then like an idiot, I'm knock. I'm staying there and doing it because I got to do the job. And then I go. But I don't know, man. If you, if you're not in pain, I say don't.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, stay. I, I just, I'm at the point where I don't.

[Ryan Sickler]

Stay away from.

[Frank Caliendo]

Don't heal quickly.

[Ryan Sickler]

What about like, you know, just pain management, epidurals, things like that? You ever try and just that stuff. You don't even need to go out.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, my legs flip fine. I should have done some stuff. I was really, I was really stupid with the tooth. That, that, that was really just dumb. So.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right, now we know we're not going to play ball anymore. What are we doing there? And what is that? Like, are you are. Does that with you for a while? Are you excited?

[Frank Caliendo]

I just kind of move on because it's over with and it's just a tension kind of thing because I could see the writing was on the wall. I didn't have a good enough arm. You know, you're supposed to be a what, a five tool player? I had zero. When you're a no tool player. Just an empty toolbox. Yeah. But it's like everybody else that's playing has like power tools and I've got.

[Ryan Sickler]

An old school screwdriver. At least one.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. So, yeah, I, I just, I just started concentrating more on school. I just, I don't. It's a weird thing where anything that's bad that happens. I just kind of stopped thinking about it. Like bad moments. In my life, when you asked me what were some, you know, before. What were some moments in my life that really down. It took me a while to get to that. That moment with baseball, with my dad, because I'd. Even that phone call was out of my consciousness. I didn't remember it till just there. Something I haven't thought about in, you know, 30 years or something. But anytime whether, you know, something bad happens in entertainment, I just kind of go on a show that gets canceled. People are like, everybody's like, what are you gonna do? I'm like, I don't know. I got stand up. I'll just go do stand up, man. That's the great thing about being a standup comedian is you can always just go do that. If you've made it to a certain level, you can always make some money somewhere. And when the show was done, when my show got canceled, I was just like, well, all right. It was a lot of work. Maybe too much work for what it was. And you could feel. I, you know, a lot of people have that fight or flight. I'm more of a flight person than a fighter, I guess, at times. And I. I wish I had passion for things. That's a thing I really do wish I had more passion for. What do you mean?

[Ryan Sickler]

Give me an example. Like, are you talking about projects you.

[Frank Caliendo]

Work on or anything? Anything. Anything in life. The only thing I have passion for is my kids. I think that's. And my wife, I think it's. My family has become my passion. It's become so much more important to me than anything in comedy or entertainment. That, that's. That's been a negative for me, a real negative in terms of advancing beyond, you know, to getting to higher and higher levels. You know, people who do really well in entertainment, there is a drive like, you don't understand how much work and how much schmoozing. You can be super talented, but you have to work the room. You have to get lucky. You have to have other people around you that are the right people. There are lots of elements. Now, there may be some people that are just so talented, they get. They get stuck. But for the average, or even slightly to way above average person, it's just hard because there's just so many people. But I just don't. I don't feel. I don't feel that loss when, when something quote, unquote, bad happens, somebody's like, what are you going to do? I go, I don't know. I'll figure it out. Down. I don't My goal in entertainment was to get to become a guest on the Tonight show in Letterman. I did it well then. I didn't really have any other things that I really couldn't wait to do. So what do you do at that point? Well, I just keep treading along and you know, if something good comes along, go for it and if that doesn't work out, I'll find something else. I've just always believed something else will happen. There are some moments where I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do right now. Know what I've saved where I can, where I've got myself in that position.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, what do you, what's wrong with your family being just your only passion though? You feel like is that more than going back to sort of that not to compare, but the well rounded thing. Like I'd like to look a little more about this and a little more about everything.

[Frank Caliendo]

I have everything else, but the passion is really there for my, my kids. Yeah, that's the thing.

[Ryan Sickler]

But what would.

[Frank Caliendo]

I'm happy about that too. I mean I'm, I wouldn't give it any other way.

[Ryan Sickler]

But what else would you like to have passion for?

[Frank Caliendo]

Like what I wish there were, you know, when they send you an audition or something like that, that I could, I would really care. I don't have a great memory and I don't know what it is, but it's so much work to memorize stuff that I just, I just like I. To get auditions to the point I want them to be at. And I'm a perfectionist in those types of things. I'm like, I don't know, I got to wait for the right person to just want me to do something. You know, it's, it's that type of thing. And that's. Then, you know, everybody, nobody ever tells you the truth. Everybody's like, that was great, that was fantastic. And like, then you have somebody else watching. Like that's not even in the industry. And it's like it doesn't look so good, you know? And you're like, all right, I can't trust anybody for what they, they really think. So in terms of well roundedness. Yeah, I think that I do have. Because I have work, I just don't have the crazy passion. I've found more passion for getting back into. One of the things that is different between how you do comedy and how I do comedy probably is my comedy is always talking about other people. Right. My comedy is always this person, this person and people are always waiting for me to do the next impression or character. They're always like, what's next? Who are you working on? It's like. But I don't tell people don't talk a lot about what my own life is or what I like or care about other than what I like in other people. So that's something. And that's something I've worked on in Stand Up a little bit. But I can always feel the people wanting to hear, what's the next character?

[Ryan Sickler]

That's an interesting point because I hadn't thought of it like that before. You're a master impressionist and it's like, you can't just do these four forever. Yeah, it's like that would be like doing the same set forever.

[Frank Caliendo]

And I was like that for a while. I mean, I was like, where I didn't change anything.

[Ryan Sickler]

But also, just because you're a master impressionist doesn't mean you.

[Frank Caliendo]

But what's a master impression?

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, I mean, you.

[Frank Caliendo]

I don't know.

[Ryan Sickler]

Gruden and Madden. Okay, fine. If you don't want to accept the flowers, I'll give you two flowers. Those are master impressions.

[Frank Caliendo]

Those are good. Those are. Those are.

[Ryan Sickler]

Shut up. Yeah, I, I understand what you're saying. I'll say it. I'll pat you on the back. They are master impressions. There's no, first of all, there's no one that ever did John Madden impressions until you did the first one. And I don't know that I've ever heard anybody do one. Honestly, I don't know that I've ever.

[Frank Caliendo]

Heard anyone that one so much. It was hard because you understand, like, master lock.

[Ryan Sickler]

Why?

[Rocket Money Advertiser]

What?

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, you had it locked down, brother. Why would anyone attempt, like I've heard a bunch of Christopher Walkins, I've heard a bunch of, you know, George Bushes, etc. Etc. But why would you even attempt Madden when it's already been.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, because you're going to be. You're going to be.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're going to be. Less presidents are pretty good, but Italian knows the.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, presidents are different where they're in. They're in the. The limelight all the time. They're the focuses on them constantly. So everybody's gonna have.

[Ryan Sickler]

I want to make this point and actually give you even more flowers because it's not like you're coming up with new material. You have to come up with a new voice.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, you can come up with a new. But you can come up with new material for the voice you already do. But what if people are going to say, what's the new.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's the new voice, Though we don't care about the material. What's the new voice? And what if you can't do one? Do you. How do you do it? Do you sit around? Do you hear one? And it hits your tone? Certain tone, Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

I actually get more from doing social media posts and trying stuff. There's a whole thing I do about. And I. It's. It's more entertainment than actual education, but it's how the voices work. So if you can. If you can manipulate stuff in your throat, which takes some time, but. And this is months and months and months and years of practice. There's a couple voices that I use, which are Kermit the Frog.

[The RealReal Advertiser]

Hi.

[Frank Caliendo]

Whole Kermit frog here. And then Fozzie Bear. Ah, waka waka waka. You know, so that's Jim Henson and Frank Oz. So those types of things. So if you're up in Kermit the Frog, you bring it down a little bit and get a bubble in your throat. That's John C. Reilly.

[Ryan Sickler]

It sure is.

[Frank Caliendo]

Did you touch my drums? Said so. Then if you add some air to it and some. Aw, shucks, genius. It's Mark Ruffalo. I see this as an absolute win. So that's in there. Bring it down even more and you get Paul Giamatti. I believe that is one of the craziest things I've ever heard. Now you can go back and when the.

[Ryan Sickler]

Does it hit you that Kermit and Fozzie are like the.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, because it's the two things you have to do with your throat. It's two things. I mean, Kermit's nasally. Fozzie. He's like, it's stuck here. Like something stuck. So then there are others that branch off that. So Bert. Nernie is like. Bert has that laugh. If you slow that down. That's Seth Rogen, which is right in there. Anyway. You know that voice? I didn't even know I did it. So that's in there as well. If you bring it up, it's Patrick Mahomes. I mean, that's a. That's kind of thing right there. Give it a little Texas. And Rogan's in there, too. Like, if you're getting that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wow.

[Frank Caliendo]

Jamie. Oh, my God. Pull that up. That is nuts. That's. That's crazy. So those voices are all in that world. It's just little bits, manipulation.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do what. What. What is the. You're probably sick of talking about it, but I Do want to know when do you realize you're like, oh my God. I, I'm pretty good at doing the math.

[Frank Caliendo]

When I'm probably the catcher in high school.

[Ryan Sickler]

What makes you say it? Are you like announcing, watching and living.

[Frank Caliendo]

Color on watching in living color and watching Saturday Night Live.

[Ryan Sickler]

What was Madden, what was it about?

[Frank Caliendo]

Madden was probably.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you remember the first time you ever said something I did sum all.

[Frank Caliendo]

First which was to the 20, to the 25, there's a flag on the play and Madden had the video game. And I was thinking, well, if he's got a video game and he's talking in the video game and he's on all these commercials, he's bigger than the average sports announcer. So once you know, kids today don't even know John. They just know the name Madden. They don't really know him him.

[Ryan Sickler]

They don't know he was scared to fly into the tour bus everywhere.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

So I do want, I don't want to forget to ask when come back to it. But I did hear and you can tell me he wasn't stoked about you.

[Frank Caliendo]

No, he hated me.

[Ryan Sickler]

He did, Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

I remember talking to the president of Fox Sports. David Hill's like, he's, yeah, he doesn't like you at all. He doesn't like you, mate. We're trying to get him to like you.

[Ryan Sickler]

We're trying to get him. You ain't gonna make that much. You don't like somebody.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, how it happened was, was Jimmy Kimmel. The story was Jimmy Kimmel had a guy who did a John Madden impression.

[Ryan Sickler]

Why?

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, because he was the NFL on Fox. He did the picks before I did. So he would make the picks with Terry Bradshaw and those guys. He had a guy who did a John Madden impression and then his producer Jim Brusca had a guy who did a John Madden impression. They were fighting over who was going to be the guy that was the John Madden impression guy. I was both the guys. It was like a sitcom moment. Like, who's your guy? What's your guy's name? Frank. What's your guy's name? Frank. Isn't it crazy?

[Ryan Sickler]

I see.

[Frank Caliendo]

So I was both the guys. So I get. We did Madden for president and nobody ever really made fun of John Madden. It was a presidential year, an election year. So Jimmy comes over and he's like, what do you think, Mr. President? And I'm like, you know, you do this and you do that and then boom. And it's funny because I listen the old man, I was way up Here with John Madden was. Should have been down here more. But it was, it worked. And at the end he took.

[Ryan Sickler]

I love it. You, you got him so good where he doesn't finish sentences and he'll mumble off.

[Frank Caliendo]

I'll tell you a thing about that after this. Jimmy takes a pair of hedge clippers to that John Madden's eyebrows. Because every always made fun of his eyebrows, but not to John Madden. He's like, here, come here Mr. Madden, I got to help you with those eyebrows. He takes a pair of hedge clippers and goes to the eyebrows. And legend has it that the next week Madden came with the first time his eyebrows were ever trimmed. So that, that there's probably a grandkid.

[Ryan Sickler]

Home like grandpa, I told you, I'm telling you, just trim mine.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, so that was, that was. He heard. Yeah, he saw that on TV and it was like, oh, the, the Madden trail off came from. There's a character. There was a show and on. I don't know, it was local television, might have been wgn, I'm not sure which. But it was Chicago, like educational children's television that was called the Giggle Snort Hotel. And the Giggle Snort Hotel had a character that was Clay on a platform and his name was Blob. And he would just go kind of a thing like almost a Schwarzenegger. Yeah, look out what you're doing over there. And if you do the Arnold over here, boom. The dog barks over there. And I just took that and I was like looking for things when I didn't have a joke with Madden what to do and I was. And it just became that type of thing. Madden did a little bit of.

[Ryan Sickler]

He did.

[Frank Caliendo]

But I turned it into big. You know, I went over the top Herbalies.

[Ryan Sickler]

Beautiful.

[Frank Caliendo]

So. And that's what I always found interesting with impressions and stuff was that the dead on impression only gets you so far. It's just a recognition laugh. Now you have to play it and become over the top. And when we're coming up and Saturday Night Live and Mad TV and the In Living Color and those types of shows doing over the top impressions, Dana Carvey was one of the best. Dana Carvey, Jim Carrey, totally over the top impressions, but done on purpose because it becomes a character then isn't just a mimicry. It's not just mimicry, it's a, it becomes a, a character. And I believed in that to the point where I would just make these people so big and over the top. Now that stuff doesn't work in social media day because A little phone. You're looking at this little screen. They want dead on voice to mat. Like voice match. Like, I don't know. I do some of that, but it was more about making the characters and stuff like that that made it so.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you ever meet Madden ever?

[Frank Caliendo]

I even talk about my act. I finally met him at the. In the. At the Four Seasons Hotel in Dallas.

[Ryan Sickler]

Intentionally or is this brand because it's a Super bowl.

[Frank Caliendo]

And I see him there talking to Jimmy Johnson.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh.

[Frank Caliendo]

Who I work with. And I'm like, jimmy, can you believe I'm this close to John Magic?

[Ryan Sickler]

What?

[Frank Caliendo]

You have met him with Taps Mad on the show. Like, what is Jimmy. Oh, is that what he said? Yeah, it was like. And I. The bit is, it was like, Shaggy, look, look, look. And when Shaggy and Scooby see the bad guy pop into the Be like sweet. Like, hey, Scoop. Like, let's get out of here.

[Ryan Sickler]

Rut row.

[Frank Caliendo]

So I made his grandkids like laugh.

[Ryan Sickler]

They were there with him.

[Frank Caliendo]

That's the thing. Yeah, his grand. That's why I didn't want to bother him. He's talking to his grandkids and.

[Ryan Sickler]

And how old are his grandkids?

[Frank Caliendo]

Probably 12, you know, 10, 12, something like that. They were laughing.

[Ryan Sickler]

I think I might have called. It might have been one of the.

[Frank Caliendo]

Grandkids that said, please. Yeah. You know you did there. That, that hit 100%. That that was the moment where he kind of got it, you know, so.

[Ryan Sickler]

So thank God they're with him. They're there with him.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. Cuz he looks at them. He looks at them and it's. They, they like. He was like, you better not. And then they cracked up and it was like, I get it now. So it was kind of that moment and then he didn't mind and I was like, can I take a picture with you?

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Frank Caliendo]

Can I have my family take a picture with you? And he kind of got it. Because people when, especially athletes and coaches and stuff like that, when you're in their world, they don't mind you making fun of them that much. If you're outside of that, if you're an outsider, you don't really have that much of an opportunity.

[Ryan Sickler]

That makes sense. You're not in.

[Frank Caliendo]

Who's this guy making fun of? You know, what I went through to get to where I am as a coach and a broadcaster and all this stuff. Then this guy, the schlubs making money off of pretending to be me, you know, it's a. So I kind of get it. But at the same time. I never did the. I always try to find stuff I like about the people.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, you. I never. That's the other thing I. If you know Phil Hartman, another great impressionist. I always heard that Frank Sinatra's family hated his Frank Sinatra because his. Frank was. Was a dick.

[Frank Caliendo]

Right?

[Ryan Sickler]

But it was an over the top dick like you said too. Like Bono is like okay, Bozo like all that shit so great. But yours was never. I never felt like you're. Madden was disparaging in silly way. It was.

[Rocket Money Advertiser]

That's right.

[Frank Caliendo]

Stuff is silly.

[Ryan Sickler]

It wasn't you making. You weren't saying like I'll beat you or what. You know, you're just being silly with it the whole time.

[Frank Caliendo]

Always about being. That's almost all my impressions are. How can I make this silly and make it goofy? That's what I'm looking for.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is there anyone that you impersonate the way you impersonate Madden in like your family or your regular circle where it's such a good impression but you only know it if you know that.

[Frank Caliendo]

Well, that's what a character is. I mean that's. That's how you make it.

[Ryan Sickler]

But what about in your life? Teachers or anything like.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh yeah, I did that all the time.

[Ryan Sickler]

You did?

[Frank Caliendo]

Mr. Christensen, the U. S. History teacher. Endo, could you go to the map? He was also the basketball coach. So like I knew nothing about geography. And he'd be like, can you go up and point to the. The United States? And I go point to the blue section. He goes, that's the water, Frank. Mr. Calendar, you can sit down. So I would. I mean there was. There was a guy, Darren Barce that I went to school with and he always. He always flair. He's a really good looking kid and he always flare up.

[Ryan Sickler]

I see your nose and everything, Jake.

[Frank Caliendo]

And he had the. He had the. The hair. Yeah. And he'd have it in his pocket.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

And he kind of. He. I mean he bounced like almost like, you know, primate like. And he just do this kind of a thing. So it was. I would do impressions of friends and I mean, you ever do impressions of.

[Ryan Sickler]

Your dad or mom to get out of trouble? Like. That's how my daughter gets out of it. My daughter. One time I was. I was angry, angry and I was saying something and she impersonated me. So spot on. I. I stopped at my tracks and I was. I mean, dropped my shoulders. I was like, God damn. I started laughing so hard. She started laughing. I go do another impression. I mean, she's like, go to bed. I started laughing so hard. Like, when I'm getting frustrated, like, let's go. Go to bed. Oh, my God.

[Frank Caliendo]

See, if I was gonna find something about you is you. You. You tend to. You tend to look down. There's an interesting thing where your chin is up and you look down and you'll do a little. That Madden thing where you don't always finish the words. And when you go into the lab, it's kind of a. I don't even know if I could get that sound. That's not a normal human sound.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know who else does it? Is. And it blows me away. If you're a Hall of Fame announcer, Chris Berman runs out of Brad Breath all the.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, yeah. It's like he took one breath and had to get the whole page out.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm like, you know, it's like Dizzy.

[Frank Caliendo]

Gillespie with the trumpet.

[Ryan Sickler]

How do you. Yeah. How do you get to be a Hall of Fame announcer if you don't realize you can take a breath in the middle of your.

[Frank Caliendo]

He told me once. He goes. He goes, if you ever have nothing to say, just say more. Just keep talking. That was his whole thing. I was like. And don't it up. That's why. That's his theory.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, that's what all those morning talk guys do. They say the same thing, and then they'll ask a rhetorical question about it. So am I a big fan of Madden? Yeah, of course I am. Yes, I'm a fan. Of course. Same. I'm like, bro, you're saying the same thing.

[Frank Caliendo]

It's hard to fill, man. That's. Have you ever tried to do a broadcast?

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, I could never sit and do, like, Bill Burr and these guys that are entertaining by themselves. I could never sit and talk to that camera for an hour.

[Frank Caliendo]

Really? You don't think so?

[Ryan Sickler]

No. And be entertaining for an hour every week. I know, so. I know. So. I want to talk about one other thing because we talked about family and you sent something in about you had a pretty scary situation with your son at an allergic reaction.

[Frank Caliendo]

Oh, yeah, we were in. We were in.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm sorry. How many kids do you have?

[Frank Caliendo]

Two. My daughter is 19. My son is 21.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay. Just the two are.

[Frank Caliendo]

Daughter's a sophomore at ASU, and my son just graduated, so. And we'd never gone overseas before. My kids, like, had these opportunities with their high school. There's a teacher that would take them on a. She took like 30 kids on a trip to. To Europe.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, so. And my wife went with my son. She was a chaperone. And he loved it. And he's like, you gotta go. So we ended up going to Italy a couple years ago. I never, I'd never been overseas. I was always scared to fly over water. I felt like those were the planes that always went down. So we went and we, we had a great time. And then we were in Florence. That was like our third or fourth stop. And we went to this high end restaurant in Florence. Got these amazing steaks and stuff like that. And my son was having a weird, weird. Just something was wrong. He didn't know what it was, but he's like, I just don't feel right now. He is, he's. He's deathly allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. He's anaphylactic, the whole thing. Turns out that they ground cashews into the pecorino cheese on the table. Cheese. So he had eaten a bunch of cashews. So. Wow. Just a little tiny.

[Ryan Sickler]

He like, he's that allergic.

[Frank Caliendo]

So he is. So he leaves, he goes back to the, the hotel, which is across the street.

[Ryan Sickler]

We think, how old is he at the time?

[Frank Caliendo]

18, something like that. So we think he's, you know, just kind of being. We don't know. We don't know anything because he's just like, something's weird and. But he's not articulating it very well, but. Because he's kind of in shock probably. So then he sends my, my daughter back because we're down downstairs in the basement, that's where this restaurant is. And my daughter comes back and says, something's really wrong and we got to go now. So we get up and we run over there and he's basically. His body's almost purple. So he's, he's in. He's got the anaphylaxis going on. He's still breathing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, is he talking, communicating at all?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, but slower and not really. And he's also just, just scared. He's just really, really scared that, you know, we're in Italy. What are we gonna do? So my wife goes to the, the front desk of the hotel and they have, they, they are, they've had issues and stuff like that before where they just knew what to do. They got another way to cheese. Well, it wasn't especially. It wasn't that specifically, but there was a little Dr. Dr. Mario is basically what he was. He was like.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's a meme in the hotel.

[Frank Caliendo]

Not in the hotel, but nearby that heard about the allergy and made a beeline over with a little doctor bag. Literally had the little doctor bag. Now, we didn't use the epi, the EpiPen. We didn't know what was going on. We weren't sure. And he gives him the shots and stuff like that because he'd had hives, you know. But what happens is the hives start and then they get bigger and then they all connect. Oh, and you even look like the same person.

[Ryan Sickler]

What?

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah. Just crazy. I'll show you a picture later as. I don't know if he'd want it on here, but it's like you can. You can see he doesn't even look like he's purple. He's basically purple. So the doctor says, did you give him epinephrine? We're like, no, we didn't use the EpiPen. He goes, always just use it just in case. It just buys you time. Something. He got him. Got the steroid in him and stuff. But he was in such shock that he was out of it for the next couple days, just lying in bed. And then he was scared to eat anything. And another when we came back, you know, he was all right. Right. And we came back to the States and like two months later, we went to an Italian restaurant and he just had a. A physical. Mental, like. Like just being in an Italian restaurant. It was just. It all relived for him. And he. He had to go and sit in the parking lot for a while, and I went and sat with him. But it was. It. It's that type of. That. That moment was a moment of. Oh, my God. I couldn't imagine.

[Ryan Sickler]

How do you figure out that it was the cheese? How?

[Frank Caliendo]

Like, we couldn't. Like, we. There was a. There a was. Was a language barrier with the. They were pretty good about it at the restaurant. We had somebody call the restaurant who spoke Italian fluently months later and ask what was in different recipes and stuff like that, because they. They think that if peanuts or nuts aren't a main. If you don't see it, they're not thinking about the table cheese, the fact that there's cashew in the them. So. And I found out TJ Watt had the same type of situation happen. He's allergic to peanuts and had a massive allergic reaction in Italy. So I know JJ And I was like, I can't believe this. But my brother had the same type of situation. So it was very interesting from that. Only a name drop. That's only reason.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

But C.J. watt did have that.

[Ryan Sickler]

No.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And so that's just one of those.

[Frank Caliendo]

Moments of mortality and your kid, you're like, oh my God. Gosh. Because he, I don't, he's in a foreign country.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like there's all these barriers.

[Frank Caliendo]

He was in bad shape, but he wasn't, I don't think he was anywhere near death, but it could have gotten to that point. But he feels like he was on death's doorstep. And how would you not? I mean especially as an 18, 19 year old kid.

[Ryan Sickler]

Just, I'm, I'm realizing as I listen to you, you don't, you still at the time all this, you don't even know what's going on. It's months later you figure out what happened. So many that moment.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

It is terrifying to be in this two month window. Like what the was that? What did I eat? What did I do? Yeah, yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

And he was just scared because he eats basically the same, he eats Chipotle all the time and a few other foods because he knows right what they are and he doesn't take a lot of chances. And he hadn't had an allergic reaction since the fourth of July like eight or ten years before. So it'd been a long time. But he, you know, you find out he had it.

[Ryan Sickler]

What was the original thing eating Chinese.

[Frank Caliendo]

Food when he was little?

[Ryan Sickler]

All the little peanuts.

[Frank Caliendo]

There was peanuts in the, there was.

[Ryan Sickler]

Some type of power or something and he got it.

[Frank Caliendo]

And son, I, I remember just throwing the, I go it's got to be nuts. And I just slammed the whatever was in front of him. I go get that away from him. And they took him to the doc. You took the doctor.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

You could just tell it just start puffing up. And then it would happen a couple times and he'd get into those days where he's just kind of like he'd have this moment. It's, he's just not with it a hundred percent. And that's the shock of the, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

And are you trying anything where like they're trying to give him little doses and all that?

[Frank Caliendo]

I don't know. It's his was so bad, the numbers were so bad that I don't know, there might be something.

[Ryan Sickler]

Those might be actually bad.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, I, I, I don't know. They might have advanced the technology and everything enough where he could do that type of thing at this point. But he's not in a place where he even wants to try it.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't blame him. Frank, this was great man. Thank you for coming on here before we wrap up. I know you Touched on a little earlier, but advice you'd give to 16 year old Frank Caliendo.

[Frank Caliendo]

My advice would be pay attention. Those two words are something. I mean, even when I walked in, I said, where are you from? And you said, look around. I mean, I don't even get. I can give 51, 52 year old Frank the same, same advice, but you just look around and Baltimore is everywhere. And I'm like. Because I was focused. When I meet a person, I don't always take in everything. I'm more focused on the person and trying to pay attention to the person because I've been bad at that before. But where I didn't even pay attention to, you know, I think part of it comes from my dad's an I, I me, me guy. My dad, like, everything's him. Like, how does that affect me? Type of thing. He doesn't say that out loud, but it's. I remember going to Chuck E. Cheese and he could do one voice, Donald Duck name. He's doing them like, wrong mouse. Dad, come on. But he wanted to embarrass us. Yeah, but I'm very worried about that. I think it's actually a negative in the entertainment world. Like, if you act like a superstar, you have a better chance of being taken as a, as a superstar. People think if you act like a regular person. Like, I've had people at like fairs and stuff. Like, don't you have any security? I'm like, for what? Nobody's running around. And if they do know me, they say, hello flow. But if you have a person, you draw attention and like there's more of that going on around. Like there's people like Tom Cruise that just couldn't go anywhere.

[Ryan Sickler]

So don't draw attention. Pay attention.

[Frank Caliendo]

Yeah, but pay attention. The. Paying attention is way to get it back on track. The paying attention is pay attention in school. Pay attention to what people say. Listen to people's names. I'm. I'm terrible with names.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm bad at names too. I'll know your bits and your. I'll be. What was his name again?

[The RealReal Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Frank Caliendo]

And I, I meet somebody and I try to get.

[Ryan Sickler]

We also meet. In our defense, we meet a lot of different people. It. It's indefensible. It is.

[Frank Caliendo]

Mark.

[Ryan Sickler]

Dude. Thank you. One more time. Promote whatever you'd like, please.

[Frank Caliendo]

Frank onstage dot com. All the dates coming up, whether it's Omaha, Nebraska at the Funny Bone, the Milwaukee Improv off the Hook Comedy club in Fort Myers. There's Choctaw Casino in right outside a couple hours outside of Dallas, so looking forward to that as well. Frank onstage.com and dates are being added all over the country all the time.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right, my man. Thank you very much as always. Ryan Sickler all your social media. We'll talk to y' all next week.

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