386: Brent Weinbach Grew Up in Hollywood & Got Bullied for Years | The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #386

Summary

Podcast Summary

The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler

Episode 386: Brent Weinbach Grew Up in Hollywood & Got Bullied for Years
Released: May 18, 2026
Guest: Brent Weinbach
Host: Ryan Sickler

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Overview

This episode of The HoneyDew dives into the formative (and sometimes absurd) lowlights of comedian Brent Weinbach’s life, focusing on his childhood in Hollywood, years of being bullied, his unique family and living arrangements, adolescent insecurities, and the traumas of adulthood (including pest-ridden apartments and misadventures in standup comedy). True to The HoneyDew’s spirit, Ryan and Brent laugh through the pain while highlighting the bizarre, the painful, and the, well, “honeydew” moments that don’t make it into most people’s highlight reels.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Brent’s Love of Honeydew & Podcast Plugs (02:53 – 06:45)

• Brent kicks off by declaring: “This is a fitting podcast for me because I eat honeydew every night. I love melon in general, and honeydew right now is my focus.” (02:53)
• Discusses how honeydew became a dessert substitute: “I started eating lighter at night…it's kind of like a dessert to me…but it’s not something that’s gonna wire me.” (03:43)
• Brent plugs his new standup special, “Popular Culture,” available on YouTube and Veeps, his YouTube chat show “Chicken Coop” (with his sister, every Monday at 6pm PT), his podcast, and social media handles.

2. Growing Up in Hollywood: Family Dynamics (06:45 – 13:19)

• Brent grew up near Hollywood Boulevard/Laurel Canyon, the “sleazy streets of Hollywood.”
• Parents started out together, divorced when Brent was an adult; his mom was from Torrance, daughter's Filipino immigrants, dad was a “jack of all trades” in media/film distribution.
• Sibling structure: “I was the oldest of four kids…two younger twin brothers, one younger sister.” Shared rooms and cramped quarters growing up—“Those were the toughest years for me…just trying to study and my brothers were just whistling.” (09:55)
• Despite sibling chaos, they’re “really close…my sister’s my best friend.” (11:21)

3. Elementary School Experiences: Bullying, Weird Highlights & Toilet Humiliation (14:37 – 24:24)

• Brent marks elementary as his darkest time: “People talk about bullies in high school…but for me it was elementary school.” (14:39)
• Recalls early bathroom bullying: “He would…pick me up…put my head in the toilet…I remember this one time there was a big log in there…a white albino human poo.” (17:59 – 19:40)
• Notable moment: “That thing was right there, and it was this close from my nose, from my face. I got real intimate with a…white poo.” (20:20)
• Brent’s father intervened by talking to the bully “with a lot of respect…treated him like an adult…The kid left me alone after that. It actually worked.” (21:34 – 22:54)
• Early on, Brent was often targeted for being the new kid (after a late start to kindergarten), and for his clothes: “I was wearing really high shorts and a really long shirt and really high socks…looked like a hot girl’s outfit.” (39:30)
• “There was this one time when these kids were trying to get me to suck somebody’s ass…In kindergarten…there was something in me that told me I shouldn’t do this.” (38:42 – 41:15)

4. Gifted Program, More Bullying, and Childhood Fights (24:24 – 44:42)

• Transition to gifted program in fourth grade brought new social challenges: “I became the new kid again…one day I had about 15 boys chasing after me…like a movie.” (25:35 – 27:06)
• Recalls being physically bullied—socked in the stomach, chased en masse, and more humiliating episodes involving other boys’ pranks.
• Brent admits, “I did fight in elementary school…usually I’m not trying to pick a fight…but there might have been a fight where I did hit them.” (43:05)
• Martial arts became a refuge, inspired at first by “The Karate Kid” and as self-defense from bullying, ultimately achieving black belt status. The initiation? “Just pain enduring…getting punched in the throat…kicked in the balls…by big Russian teens… hardest thing I ever did.” (46:09 – 48:20)

5. Middle School & High School: Slightly Brighter Days (32:21 – 38:32)

• Middle school meant a long commute and eye-opening city experiences: “We used to pick up the bus from Sunset and Gardner—there were prostitutes and pimps still there from the night before.” (32:39)
• High school at Grant High School (Van Nuys); compared to earlier years, it was “pretty well… I tried to be friends with everybody, infiltrate every scene.” (36:59 – 37:10)
• Admits to depression and self-doubt in adolescence: “I was like a lot of teenagers, kind of depressed in high school…I had crushes I never acted on.” (37:22)
• Advice to his 16-year-old self: “Stop worrying about it and just…start. It could’ve been so easy. I don’t know why it was so hard. Just ask her out.” (68:09)

6. Adulthood: From Germaphobe to Roach Trauma (57:19 – 67:41)

• Brent’s journey from a “dirty boy” to a “germaphobe”: “Now I’m a germaphobe because I lived in a place with roaches.” (57:19 – 57:29)
• The horror of finding roaches in his meticulously clean apartment: “The thing I don’t like…shows you how little control you have over your environment.” (58:55)
• A traumatizing roach infestation led him to leave the apartment; the experience left him obsessively checking hotel mattresses for bedbugs and home for pests years later. “I look under my bed every night before I go to bed. Even after four years in the new place.” (64:43 – 64:47)

7. Physical Altercation as an Adult & Reflections on Violence (51:22 – 56:58)

• Only physical fight as an adult was with another comedian (Louie Katz), after a year of antagonism: “It was wrong of me. And I should never have got there. I should never have taken it to a physical level.” (52:13 – 54:10)
• The encounter made Brent realize: “I just thought, you know what? Violence is not the answer. And I never got physical ever again, and I never will.” (51:34 – 51:38)
• On physical confrontation: “Everyone kind of needs to know what it’s like to be struck by someone they don’t know…that first time ever is terrifying.” (49:44 – 50:07)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Weird Childhood foods/lifestyle:
  “I bathed in dirt. If I had dirty hands, I would put it in dirt, and then it would seem clean to me… But then puberty happened. I started to stink. Started bathing in water.” (13:41 – 14:10, Brent)

• On classic bullying tropes being real:
  “You think this is what happens in movies… A lot of classic stuff that you see in cartoons, it happened to me.” (18:20 – Brent)

• On bullying aftermath:
  “He was really respectful to the kid…that kind of got through to him…and the kid left me alone after that.” (21:38 – Brent, on his dad’s intervention)

• On regretting violence:
  “That was one of the dumbest things I ever did… fighting is not for adults or shouldn’t be. I want to talk things out from now on or just walk away.” (56:58 – Brent)

• Advice to his younger self:
  “Just stop being a… Just start, you know, just talk to the girl. It could have been so easy. I don’t know why it was so hard. I would say, it's not a challenge. Just do it. And don’t worry, after high school, you’re going to have some serious laughs coming up.” (68:09 – 69:19, Brent)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:53] Honeydew talk, sleep rituals, and show promotion
• [06:45] Childhood in Hollywood, family background, and sibling relationships
• [14:37] Early bullying, bathroom humiliation, classic “movie” bully stories
• [24:24] Gifted program, ramped-up bullying, and childhood fights
• [32:21] Middle/junior/high school: city commutes, culture shock, and social navigation
• [46:09] Martial arts, black belt initiation, and using karate for self-esteem
• [51:22] Adulthood fight, lessons learned, and philosophy on violence
• [57:19] Germaphobia, roach trauma, lasting psychological effects
• [67:41] Advice to young Brent, the journey through adolescence & adulthood

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Tone & Takeaways

• The episode continually balances hilarity and discomfort, in true “HoneyDew” fashion. Both Brent and Ryan exude vulnerability, self-deprecating humor, and a frank assessment of how “lowlights” shape character.
• Brent’s stories are detailed, often absurd (“white poo,” invitations to “suck Brian’s ass,” and roach-induced paranoia), but always delivered with dry wit and humility.
• Key threads: the difficulties and outcast moments of childhood aren’t just to be survived, but can become the most memorable (and funniest) stories in adulthood—as long as you can laugh at them later.

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Guest Plugs

• Special: Popular Culture – on YouTube and Veeps
• Podcast: The Brent Weinbach Podcast
• YouTube Live Show: Chicken Coop (Mondays, 6pm PT, with his sister)
• Tour Dates: May 7th (Comedy Studio, Boston), Feb 25th (Hollywood Improv), Jan 24th (Cobbs Comedy Club, SF, with Moshe Kasher)
• Social: @BrentWeinbachComedy (Instagram), Legacy Music Hour (for video game music fans)

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Final Thoughts

If you haven’t lived through an awkward childhood, terrifying bullies, or a traumatic roach infestation, Brent’s memorable stories and candid humor will make you reconsider what’s highlight—and Honeydew—worthy. Above all, the episode highlights resilience, the weird power of family bonds, and the healing power of humor, especially when looking back on moments that once felt impossible to laugh about.

Transcript

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[Brent Weinbach]

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[Ryan Sickler]

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[Commercial Narrator]

the Honeydew with Ryan Sickler.

[Ryan Sickler]

Welcome back to the Honeydew, y'.

[Brent Weinbach]

All.

[Ryan Sickler]

We're over here doing it in the Night Pan Studios. I am Ryan Sickler. Ryan Sickler.com Ryan Sickler on all your social media thank you guys for supporting this show. Thank you for supporting anything I do. I genuinely appreciate it. And like I say, if you got to have more, you got to check out the Patreon. If you haven't signed up for our Patreon yet, I promise you we had some big drops at the beginning of the year. There's a lot of exciting new content over there. Get over there. Check it out now. And if you or someone you know has a story that has to be heard. Please submit it to honeydew podcastmail.com. all right. Nowhere else. Honeydew podcast, gmail.com. all right, that's the biz. You guys know what we do here? We highlight the lowlights. Always say that. These are the stories behind the storytellers. I am very excited to have this guest with us here today. Ladies and gentlemen, first time on the Honeydew, Brent Weinbach. Welcome to the Honeydew, Brent Weinbach.

[Brent Weinbach]

Thank you. Thank you for having me. And this is a fitting podcast for me because I eat honeydew every night.

[Ryan Sickler]

You.

[Brent Weinbach]

You, almost without fail.

[Ryan Sickler]

No. Are you with me?

[Brent Weinbach]

It's a nightly. You're a comedian, so I'm totally serious. I love, first of all, I love melon in general, and honeydew right now is my focus, and I do it every night.

[Ryan Sickler]

How long you been doing that?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, melon, yeah. At least 10 years nightly. Melonly every night.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's like your ice cream before bed

[Brent Weinbach]

kind of a thing. Yeah, that's. It puts me to sleep, and I. Okay, no, 10 years is actually probably six years, I think.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, that's still. And it works for you. That's a sleep I love.

[Brent Weinbach]

I just, I love. And honeydew right now is my favorite.

[Ryan Sickler]

How'd you figure that? How'd you figure out melon was the, the sleep trick?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, okay, it's because I started eating lighter at night at a certain point, and so I didn't want to eat too much sugar, but I'm okay with a natural sort of sugar. So it's kind of like a dessert to me, you know? And it's basically my nightly dessert, but it's not something that's gonna wire me or something. You know what I mean?

[Ryan Sickler]

You're our people, dude.

[Brent Weinbach]

I don't know.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm gonna say. We've been doing this podcast seven years, and probably less than three people have said they like honeydew maybe.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, really? Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's the whole reason this show is called the Honeydew is because most people discard it. It's a perfectly good fruit that most people just toss away.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, it's top five for me. Top five, top five fruits. Honeydew.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, man.

[Brent Weinbach]

I, I, I love the stuff. Okay. And I just. It's like candy to me almost, but it's, you know, candy. That's not bad for you. So that's why I eat it at night.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, I love hearing it. Dude, before we get into your stories, please, right there. Plug everything and anything you'd like all of it.

[Brent Weinbach]

All right, look, first and foremost, and I'm glad we have this opportunity at the top of the show to do this is I have a new stand up special. It's pretty new, came out in May of this year. It's called Popular Culture and it's on YouTube and it's also now on Veeps. But look, I say this on other podcasts, but before you, you probably don't know who I am and before you decide that you think I'm boring or whatever, just watch the special first. Okay? Even pause this episode right now, this podcast, watch the special, then come back and do the victory lap and watch the stories behind the stories. So check that out. That's number one. But I also do this live stream chat show with my sister on YouTube called the Chicken Coop and that's every Monday at 6pm Pacific Time. It's on my YouTube channel, which is YouTube.com Brent Weinbach and I have a separate podcast that I do that's not live, called the Brent Weinbach Podcast. And my Instagram is Brent Weinbach Comedy. And, and I have some dates too. Sorry. May 7th in Boston at the Comedy Studio and the Hollywood Improv on February 25th in Los Angeles. Not Hollywood, you know, Florida or wherever.

[Ryan Sickler]

The Hollywood Improv, they should do that.

[Brent Weinbach]

They should say that they should have a Hollywood improv for Florida too, you know, or anywhere where there's Hollywoods, you know, and then, oh, there's a Hollywood in Oregon too. Or in Portland. In Portland there's a Hollywood district. They should do a Hollywood Improv there.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was going to say, how do you have a Hollywood Hollywood in a city. But it's a district.

[Brent Weinbach]

It's some sort of district. Yeah. Well, actually Hollywood here is kind of Hollywood.

[Ryan Sickler]

I guess you're right. It's in West Lamp in la. Yeah, you're right.

[Brent Weinbach]

West Hollywood.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

So yeah. And then I don't know when this comes out, but maybe it's already passed, but January 24th, I'm doing a thing with my friend Moshe Casher called Smug Shift at Cobbs Comedy Club in San Francisco. All right, sorry and sorry for all that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Don't be sorry. That's what you're here for. Let's get into your story. Where are you from originally?

[Brent Weinbach]

I grew up here in Los Angeles.

[Ryan Sickler]

You are, you're in la. Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

The sleazy streets of Hollywood.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, where? Where?

[Brent Weinbach]

Hollywood.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're on the Hollywood side.

[Brent Weinbach]

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up, you know, right near Hollywood Boulevard. And you know Laurel Canyon.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, what's that like? You got. Let me just say. Let me get to the beginning. Are mom and dad together? How many? You said you have a sister.

[Brent Weinbach]

They're divorced, but I have a sister. I have two brothers who just moved back to Los Angeles.

[Ryan Sickler]

What about when you guys are kids, though? Are they together at least to be. Start.

[Brent Weinbach]

Say what? Oh, yeah. No, no. Yeah, they're together to start. Yeah. My parents divorced when I was an adult.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Okay.

[Brent Weinbach]

And. Yeah, I was the oldest of four kids.

[Ryan Sickler]

Four. Okay.

[Brent Weinbach]

I was the king. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're. And mom and dad, how'd they meet?

[Brent Weinbach]

They met at a bar, I think in Los Angeles somewhere.

[Ryan Sickler]

So they from here as well?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, my mom grew up in Torrance. Okay. And her family's from the Philippines. They came from the Philippines and then they.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was about to say when you said Torrance, I was curious.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, they. They moved after World War II, and then she. She. She was the only one. Her family born here in California, in Torrance.

[Ryan Sickler]

And what's your dad do?

[Brent Weinbach]

Different things. Let's just say entrepreneur.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wasn't here for entertainment, though.

[Brent Weinbach]

He did a little bit of that. Yeah, he was. I mean, he kind of mainly did that kind of stuff. He did stuff in Europe and then he always tried to get stuff going here, but it never really, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

So was he like a jack of all trades kind of guy? Yeah. Really a career. He's just like.

[Brent Weinbach]

He did different things. He would get. He distributed video. Videos, you know, the kind of like he had to find the rights to certain video rights to certain things and distribute them, you know, like movies, like, trying to think of, I don't know, Choppy and the Princess. You probably never heard of that stuff. You never heard of, you know, or he'd do these kind of compilations of student films and have them out on video. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And what did mom do?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, mainly did stay at home stuff, but she taught. She substitute taught later on when we were older and stuff. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And what kind of home you growing up? You have four kids. Are you in a. Three. Are you sharing a room?

[Brent Weinbach]

I shared a room with my sister and then eventually my brothers were. I was sharing a room with my brother. So. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

So it goes. You sister and then two brothers.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. She eventually got her own room, as she should. I mean, especially then it was the three boys in the room.

[Ryan Sickler]

In one room.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. Okay. I mean, I was kind of a lot older than my brother, so it was kind of a different sort of dynamic, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's the age gap between you guys?

[Brent Weinbach]

Eight years for my brothers. They're twins, and then.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, they're twins.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. All right.

[Brent Weinbach]

My sister is two years younger than me.

[Ryan Sickler]

I hear this. I hear this a lot. It's weird to me because I'm a twin, but hearing.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, you are?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. But hearing was just recently on this podcast where someone said, my brothers are twins. And I was like, ew, That's. That's a sentence. My younger brother says.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, my brothers aren't twins. I'm a twin. But he. Brothers are twins. I was like, ew. He says that.

[Brent Weinbach]

Were all three of you in the

[Ryan Sickler]

same room after everything went to hell?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

From 10th, 11th and 12th grade, we were all in the same room together.

[Brent Weinbach]

Those were the toughest years for me when I was sharing a room with my brothers, because, yeah, I was trying to study. I was just trying to study and stuff. And they were just whistling, you know? You know, they learned. They learned how to whistle, and they were just really strong whistlers, and that was tough for me, trying to do my studies, you know, trying to learn. We just learned how to snap, like, shut the. Because I was in my room and I would just kind of do my homework on my bed, you know, because.

[Ryan Sickler]

How old are you now?

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, well, I don't really like to say exactly how old I am, but I'm in my mid-40s.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay. But, yeah, so we're not. Yeah, okay.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, we're not what?

[Ryan Sickler]

Say we're young. So you're doing homework. Like, you know, there's no computer or anything probably. Right.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

For you.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. I mean, I'm not using a computer, Peter. No. I mean, sometimes I used a word processor to do certain essays and stuff. But no, I'm doing my math and stuff on my bed, and I'm just. My brothers are just whistling up a storm, and I can't. It's just. It was really hard to concentrate. And then my sister was in the next room, and she was, you know, blasting. I'm not gonna. I won't embarrass her and tell you what music she was listening to. She was blasting it, and that would get on my nerves too.

[Ryan Sickler]

And. Are you all still close?

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, yeah, we're really close. Okay. Yeah. We're married now. All four of us.

[Ryan Sickler]

You gotta like each other to do a podcast with somebody.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah. No, my siblings.

[Ryan Sickler]

Family.

[Brent Weinbach]

My siblings are great. I mean, they're my closest friends, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's great.

[Brent Weinbach]

My sister's my best friend.

[Ryan Sickler]

Hell yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

Okay.

[Ryan Sickler]

So growing up, where's your elementary school? Where are you going?

[Brent Weinbach]

I went to Wonderland. You ever hear of it? It's in. Near. In Hollywood. Yeah, I have heard it's in the Canyon.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, I was going to say it's near the whole Manson and is off of Wonderland, right?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Sharon Tate, I think he lived up there. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you going there in elementary school?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. And you're living fresh off of the Manson murders. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Where are you living?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, and kind of Hollywood, you know, near Laurel Canyon and Holly Boulevard. Those are kind of the nearest streets. Yeah. And yeah, it was, you know. Yeah, it was a. It was a kind of a rustic area, but, you know, there's a lot of centipedes and stuff, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Brent Weinbach]

It was a house. Yeah. We were kind of lived in. It was kind of a. There was some outdoor. It was. There was no yard, but there was some outdoor areas and stuff and kind of woods nearby and stuff. You know, I go into the woods

[Ryan Sickler]

and what kind of.

[Brent Weinbach]

You know, I kind of look for snails.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, I love. I mean, it's nice. Even if it's just a patch of woods, it's something to go do when you're a kid, there's in those woods.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. It's weird. I. I would. I was a pretty dirty boy, you know, but I would never. I wouldn't want to do that stuff now. I'm so not an outdoors person now.

[Ryan Sickler]

But you were as a kid.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I was going. I was. I bathed in the dirt, you know, I washed my hands in dirt. I would. If I had dirty hands, I would put it in dirt and then it would seem clean to me, you know?

[Ryan Sickler]

What happened? What? Switched.

[Brent Weinbach]

I think puberty.

[Ryan Sickler]

Why do you say, I don't know.

[Brent Weinbach]

I started to stink, you know?

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that really when you stop?

[Brent Weinbach]

I think that I started to. Once I started to, I don't know, secrete more things. Oils and smells and things. I wanted to just be cleaner more often. And so I just got into the habit of being clean and I got into being clean and then I just. After that, I didn't want to. I. Then I started bathing in water. That's when you switched to water? I switched from dirt to water, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's elementary school like for you?

[Brent Weinbach]

So elementary school was, I think, probably my darkest time. You know, people talk about bullies in high school or junior high. Junior high is usually kind of prime time.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

Bully time. But for me, it was really junior. It was elementary school, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

The little kids came after you, huh?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I mean, they weren't so little. I mean, they were bigger kids. I mean, I was a small kid, and I mean, still a small kid.

[Ryan Sickler]

They're elementary school kids, not middle or high school kids. These are early on. They're coming after you.

[Brent Weinbach]

You know what, though? Even, okay, when I was fifth and sixth graders seem like college kids to me. When I was in first grade or whatever, you know, or second grade, I don't know if you remember that, but when you look at the sixth graders, I was thinking, these are adults. They're adults.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes.

[Brent Weinbach]

It didn't seem like they were kids. I mean, if you look at a sixth grader now, they look, you know, they look pretty young, you know, for the most part. I mean, sometimes you get maybe a Russian exchange student who's, you know, fully buffed out, you know, and has puberty. Actually, I had my friend in sixth grade who was from Russia. He had a full bush, you know, and he showed it to everybody at a birthday party once. But that's not a low life. That's not a low light. That's not a birthday party. That's a highlight. That was a highlight. Oh, absolutely, Absolutely. Yeah. Who wants to see my bush is hilarious. Oh, no, it was. I remember we watched a video, and then we. And then I heard everyone kind of yelling my name. Brad, get in here.

[Ryan Sickler]

Quick, get in here.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, because he was showing it to people in this other room, and no

[Ryan Sickler]

one had pubes yet.

[Brent Weinbach]

No one.

[Ryan Sickler]

At least no one was willing to show him anybody.

[Brent Weinbach]

I'm pretty sure no one had it except for him, you know, And I remember that my one friend Dustin said, whoa, it's a jungle in there. That's how. That's how strong his pubics were. You know, it was. They were like trees. They were like trees in sixth grade. No, those are wild times. But again, like I said, that was a highlight, you know, that was to see, you know, the progression of the body.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, why are you being bullied? What's going on? Was it a certain group of kids that would do this?

[Brent Weinbach]

There was one guy when I was in first grade, I think. Oh, yeah, first grade. He must have been in fourth grade, I think, or something. I don't know. He had this big afro. He. I. I don't know why he. I was just in the bathroom doing my thing, and for some reason, he had a little gang with him, and he. For some reason, just honed in on me, and it became a regular thing,

[Ryan Sickler]

you know, or they follow you in or something.

[Brent Weinbach]

Just. I was scared to go into the bathroom anytime because I thought, if that guy's in there, I'm going to. It's going to be trouble, you know, Maybe he saw me. Maybe it was before I realized that you don't have to pull your pants all the way down to go pee, you know, and maybe he, you know, kind of thought that was lame, that I didn't just do the. You know what I mean? You know, there's a moment in your life, you know, when you're younger when you realize you don't have to have your pants around your ankles to go pee. And you start to go pee like an adult, which is just, you know, you want to do the fly and you kind of put your penis out or whatever. And so probably. He probably saw me with the whole pants down and thought, that's a target right there.

[Ryan Sickler]

And we're gonna. With this.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, that guy's bottomless. That's a. That's. This guy's gonna get it. So it is hard to fight when your pants are around. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's. He's. Look, he's disabled right now. He's got real. He's got. He's Got his. His ankles locked.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are they physically with you at all, or.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. So. Okay. Well, yes. I mean, they. He would pick me up, and I'm trying to. I think he would say that. He would say, you want to have a pizza party? And he called it a pizza party or something. And he would. And he lifted me up and maybe with the help of the other kids, and they put my head in the toilet. And there was. I remember this one time there was.

[Ryan Sickler]

That really happened to you?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. Yeah. This is. I mean, you think this is what happens in movies.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's what I'm saying. I've never met anyone that actually did somebody.

[Brent Weinbach]

A lot of classic stuff that you see in cartoons and stuff. It happened. I actually really had it. Which is kind of fitting because classic cards. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cartoon, too. Anyway, so it kind of fit in a way.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're, what, a first or second grader and they're dunking your head in the toilet.

[Brent Weinbach]

Fortunately, he did not actually make contact with what was in there, but got really close. And there was. There was a big log in there this one time. I don't think this was produced by any child. I think it was. I think the janitor was in there earlier because I saw the janitor come out there at one point. Why didn't he flush at that lazy piece of. You know, I never thought.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'll get it later.

[Brent Weinbach]

I never thought of that. Maybe. Maybe it wasn't the janitor.

[Ryan Sickler]

He saw it was like that and he left.

[Brent Weinbach]

Maybe he felt like he didn't have enough work to do and wanted to, you know, I don't know. You know, it's just. I mean, a janitor leaving a big piece of poo doesn't quite make sense because his job is to clean, not

[Ryan Sickler]

to, you know, what could have been his last. I'll tell you what.

[Brent Weinbach]

Maybe so. Yeah. But this thing was. I don't know if you've heard of the legendary white poo. You know, dog poo? Do you know. Well, I guess dog poo can get white.

[Ryan Sickler]

Back in the day. It did. I don't feel like I see white dog poo anymore.

[Brent Weinbach]

This is a white human poo.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, dude.

[Brent Weinbach]

All right. This was a white albino human poo. Yeah, I've never. It wasn't even. It was kind of more frosted, you know, it was kind of like a frosted tip, you know, it was. It had a frosted top. It was a frost. What was it now? I don't know. It looked like There was. It was poo that was. It was like an elder poo, you know, that's why I thought it was an elder. It was. It was an elder poo. Yeah. And I've never in my life even heard of it. It was crazy. It was a. I. It sounds like I'm making it up.

[Ryan Sickler]

You asked me, though, you said, have you ever heard of the wipe. Has anyone else ever heard of this, or.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yes. What? I. I hadn't. Someone else. I was talking to somebody about this years ago, and they said, yeah, I saw White Poo once, too. And then I saw this movie, you know, many, many years later called Stepbrothers. Yeah, when did that come out of 2008 or something? And there was white poo in that movie. And I said, whoa, they know about the white poo. I said, oh, I think it might have been white dog poo for that one. But I just thought, oh, whoa, White who is not just. It's not just my own thing or something some other guy saw, too. Oh, and I think Sarah Silverman talked about white poo at one point.

[Ryan Sickler]

Dog poo. Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, dog poo. Okay. Well, I. This was in the toilet, and who knows? I mean, it was big. It didn't seem like as a dog, but whoever left it was a bit of a dog to do that. Right. Anyway, that thing was right there, and it was this close from my nose, from my face. You know, I got real intimate with a. I mean, I guess it could have been worse. You know what I mean? I could have.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you go to the principal after this, or do you just shut the.

[Brent Weinbach]

No, I kind of just cried and

[Ryan Sickler]

mind your business and just did that.

[Brent Weinbach]

I did tell my dad about it eventually, and he did actually come to the school and talk to the kid at one point. He was really cool.

[Ryan Sickler]

Were you there with him?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

How was your dad with the kid?

[Brent Weinbach]

He was actually really. He was really respectful to the kid, and I think that kind of got through to him, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, the kid?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. He kind of treated him with a lot of respect and kind of treated him like an adult kind of, you know, and he's introduced himself and, you know, and he. And he kind of just. I don't know. He was really. He wasn't. He didn't reprimand him or anything like that. You know, he just kind of talked to him about, you know, why, you know, I don't know just about why this could be hurtful or whatever or something like that. I don't know. I kind of don't remember the details exactly, but I just remember him being really just respectful to the kid, not kind of talking down to him. And the kid left me alone after that. Okay. Yeah, it was, he actually, it actually worked. I know it sounds like kind of a, a wussy move to have your dad come. I didn't. I just kind of told my parents that there was this kid who kept on bullying me and then they. So my dad just, you know, came and talked to him and stuff. I mean, did that he somehow found him during recess or something. He came in during recess and I said, oh, that's, it's that kid there. And then. Yeah, you know, we, we sat down at a table and talked, you know. Yeah. So then after that he left me alone. Yeah, but, but the, the white poo was sort of the, the highlight of that look, that relationship, you know?

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, it did. I mean, in different ways, you know, because. Well, when I was in fourth grade I got into this kind of gifted program.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was just about to say, were you gifted? And talented and.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, no, I mean, I don't know. I don't think I was. I kind of. I think I. I kind of snuck through somehow. I don't know, because I. I didn't get terribly great grades in elementary school. I got really studious in high school, but, you know, when my. My brothers were whistling. But when I was. Yeah, when it mattered. Yeah. But in elementary school, I wasn't that great of a student. No, I was. I was good in the regular school, you know, and so when I got into this. This gifted program, you know, I was in fourth grade, and it was kind of like I became the new kid again, even though I'd been at that school since kindergarten, you know, and so I don't know that it was a new environment, and these kids were different than the kids I was used to. And I don't know. They. I remember there was this one day when I had about 15 boys chasing after me and not chasing it after me for a good reason. They weren't vying for my love or anything.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's a lot of kids coming after you. Why are they coming after you?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, it all started in the cafeteria. There was this kid named Joseph. I don't know. He said, no, this is what it was. We were in class. Actually wasn't in the cafeteria. We were in class. And he said, I'm gonna fight you. And he was a bigger kid, just Joseph. Forgot his last name, but he's a bigger kid. And he had this little psychic named Roy. I remember. I guess he was kind of a bully, I guess. And he said, I'm gonna fight you. And then he's gonna fight you at lunch. And I said, I don't know. I don't. I don't want to do that, you know? And he says, it's too bad. It's gonna happen. And I. And so then lunch came. And I said, all right, look, before. Can we just eat lunch first before the fight, you know? And he said, all right, fine. So we ate lunch together.

[Ryan Sickler]

You together?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's not going over there. You're like. So.

[Brent Weinbach]

And, yeah, Roy, his psychic, was there, and, yeah, we had lunch. And then. And then he said, all right, time for the fight. After we finished lunch, I said, all right, can we just go to the bathroom? Can we. Can we go to the bathroom first? He said, all right, fine. We'll go to the bathroom. So I go to the bathroom, and, you know, I pee without pulling my pants all the way down, you know?

[Ryan Sickler]

Of course.

[Brent Weinbach]

Real man. And at this point, a lot of other boys had kind of caught wind of the fight, you know, that was going to happen that I wasn't really going to even try to participate in, but so they had kind of joined into the bathroom. It was kind of a. So basically there was a bit of an audience there.

[Ryan Sickler]

Now you're going to fight in the bathroom?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, that's what it.

[Ryan Sickler]

So not intentionally.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, not intentionally. That's what it turned into. Yeah. So I finished peeing, but I was really not ready to fight. But he just started to get into it at that point and sock me in the stomach. I went down, hit the floor. There was some pee on the floor a little bit. So that kind of sucked. And then I kind of just got out of there and all the. The whole audience of boys got in on it. And they all were chasing me throughout the school the rest of that lunch and. And then, yeah, they just chased me all over school. And it was crazy. It felt like a movie or something. I was hiding out. It was like a zombie teacher. It's like a zombie movie, you know, I felt like the. The. The teachers got in on it too. They were chasing after me, too. They all hated me. They all hated me. In the fourth grade. No. But there was one kid named Samuel who did help me. He said, here. Hiding here. And he did help me. But later on in fifth grade, he would do some weird things too. He'd stick his finger in his butt and make me smell it and stuff.

[Ryan Sickler]

What, in class?

[Brent Weinbach]

In class? Yeah. Get the out of here. Yeah. He'd be like, hey, smell this. And I smelled it and said, oh, it smelled like a butt or whatever. Smell like poo and stuff.

[Ryan Sickler]

And it's my butt. In class?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. In class. Yeah. Yeah. He would also do other stuff because we'd have sleepovers where. I remember there's one birthday we had was a bunch of us. I don't think he did this to me, but he was grabbing people's balls too, like while we were trying to sleep. Sleep? Yeah, he was like, grabbing on him and trying to, like, rip them off or something. Yeah, something like that. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

What? Did you ever get in trouble in school? Were you a good kid or did you ever cause any problems?

[Brent Weinbach]

I did get in trouble a bit. Yeah. Well, there was. Okay, there was one time in. In first grade. This was. This was kind of. This is definitely a low light for me because it was an accident, actually. But we had this art. It was, I guess, kind of a nice day or something. And the teacher asked us to take our. Or to said, let's go outside to do this next thing or whatever. I don't know what she was going to do. Maybe she was going to read to us or something. And she was pregnant and there was. I don't know, there wasn't enough chairs outside. And I was looking for a chair to get. I don't know. I saw this chair and I said, okay, well, there's a chair. I'll just take that. And I took this chair and somehow it just didn't click for me that that was her chair that she was going to sit in. Oh, you know why? Because it was smaller. Like one of the kids. The smaller chair for like, for one of the kids, you know, So I didn't think. I. Somehow I did know she was going to sit in it, but somehow I thought, oh, maybe she's not going to sit down. I don't know what I was thinking at 6 years old, but I took the chair away. And then she came to start standing there and I guess she thought the chair was going to be there, and she sat down and kind of just fell on her butt, you know, and she's pregnant and pregnant. And she was, you know, really about to pop pregnant, you know, and so she just. She was really upset with me because she thought maybe I did that intentionally or something.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, she also probably went down kind of hard if she thinks in the chairs there wait for the. A pregnant weight for the chair.

[Brent Weinbach]

She was shocked, you know, because she thought. I think she thought there was something more malicious.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did she see you do it, though? How'd she know you did that?

[Brent Weinbach]

Because I think she said, who. Who took my chair? And I said, oh, I think I did. All right. I guess I did, you know, or something. I think I admitted to it. And she just was thought, why did you do that? Why would you do that? I mean, she was really upset with me and I didn't know how to explain it. I didn't know how to explain. I didn't know how to articulate, and I still don't. That I saw the chair and I thought. And there weren't. There weren't any other chairs, and I thought that I could use that chair. And I just didn't put it together that she would be sitting down on it or something. I don't know. But, you know, I. I was really sorry. I got her flowers and.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, well, my mom said. My mom helped me get me. My mom gave me flowers to give to her, you know, and I wrote a Note, you know, was it well received? I think it was as well received as it could. I mean, I'm sure she probably thought this kid is psycho or something. That he. I'm pregnant. And he pulled the chair out up from under me. It wasn't that immediate, by the way. It wasn't like she was sitting down and I pulled it out, you know,

[Ryan Sickler]

that's what I wanted to ask.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, it was. I pulled it out and she thought the chair was there.

[Ryan Sickler]

She's talking, then she goes to sit down.

[Brent Weinbach]

She wasn't even there when I took the chair, by the way. She just didn't notice that the chair was missing when I. Anyway, but maybe she thought I did it more close, you know, closer to when she was going to talk anyway, so that was kind of. That was pretty bad, you know, But I did apologize. I mean, I tried to apologize as much as I could as a six year old, but it. It's hard to. I. I recognize that it was bad, you know, but it's also sort of hard. It's stuck with you. I think it's worse. I think about it. It's worse to me now when I think about it, that she was, you know, pregnant and just hit the floor pretty hard. So that was kind of bad, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

What was middle school like? Did it get any better? And where are you going? Where are you going out here to middle school?

[Brent Weinbach]

I went to middle school. Well, it was. It was junior high back in my day, but it was. We went to. I went to. Out in the Valley. I went to. In Northridge. I went all the way out. We took the bus all the way to North.

[Ryan Sickler]

Damn.

[Brent Weinbach]

It was actually crazy. We used to take the bus.

[Ryan Sickler]

I picked the bus up at 45, maybe longer.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, something like. Or it was maybe. Yeah, half an hour, 45 minutes. But it was. We used to pick up the bus from Sunset and Gardner and there was prostitutes that were still there from the night before and pimps sometimes were on the street yelling at them.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are your parents riding with you or are you just rolling solo?

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, yeah, solo. Yeah. Yeah, but they. I mean, well, other kids. I mean, there's other kids and. Yeah, there was a. It's kind of crazy because I remember learning about pimps, that pimps were not what they look like on tv, you know, or in movies. You know what I mean? They didn't. They weren't wearing fur coats and the hats. Hats and all that stuff. They just look like normal guys, you know? I mean, fairly normal guys.

[Ryan Sickler]

When did you realize what Was going on. When did you put it all together?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, I just. I put it together when I saw a man chasing a woman down the street saying, where's my money? That sounds like a. That sounds like a pimp. But he was around.

[Ryan Sickler]

Sounds like a broth.

[Brent Weinbach]

But he wasn't dressed. He wasn't dressed, you know, all crazy. He wasn't like a 70s pimp, you know, he was, you know, he's just wearing a Dodgers. I remember. He's just wearing a Dodgers jacket. That was it, you know. But the woman. The women were dressed up, you know, kind of like classic prostitutes. You know, like classic 80s style prostitutes.

[Ryan Sickler]

The short skirts.

[Brent Weinbach]

Short skirts and stuff. And you know, like.

[Ryan Sickler]

And they're on the bus with you guys?

[Brent Weinbach]

No, they weren't taking the bus. They were just standing. They were standing at the corner, picked up the bus.

[Ryan Sickler]

Jesus Christ. That's a wild bus stop.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I know. Isn't that crazy?

[Ryan Sickler]

Wow. Bust.

[Brent Weinbach]

Isn't that crazy? Yeah. So. But no, junior high was. No, I mean, junior high was better. There was. School just got. I mean, as far as pulling goes

[Ryan Sickler]

all the way out there. Was it a good school?

[Brent Weinbach]

Supposedly it was a good school. And a lot of kids from my elementary school went there. Oh, well, there's two schools they went to. They went to that one and they went to this other one. The one I went to was called Porter, I don't know if you heard of. It's in Northridge. And then the other one was Sepulveda. People went to Sepulveda north, north or. Or Porter.

[Ryan Sickler]

And was your high school Hollywood High then?

[Brent Weinbach]

No, I was supposed to go to Fairfax.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, Fairfax.

[Brent Weinbach]

That was. That was the school I was supposed to go to. But there was. I don't know, there was open enrollment at this other school in Van Nuys called Grant.

[Ryan Sickler]

I know Grant.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, you know Grant? Yeah. So I went there, you know, in the footsteps of Tom Selleck. He went there, did he? Yeah. And Ricky Rackman from the Headbangers.

[Ryan Sickler]

I remember Ricky from Headbangers Ball.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. And Loveline, he actually. And he hosted Loveline too. Right, right. That was when it was not as big. It was a. More of a local show here, but. And then I guess later on Gilbert Arenas went there, but I didn't. It was a different time than me, I think. But yeah, Grant, High School, you know, it was pretty classic school, you know, there's 4,000 kids in that school. You know, pretty classic 4,000 kids school. Big Armenian contingent there, you know, you

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Brent Weinbach]

Dude, the Mexican Armenian rivalry was big there.

[Ryan Sickler]

Really?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And, and how are you getting along in high school?

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, pretty well. I was, I like to be friends with, I try to be friends with everybody and stuff. I mean, different. I like to, I wanted to, what do you call it, infiltrate every scene, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

And did you?

[Brent Weinbach]

I did, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You were friends with like the Mexicans,

[Brent Weinbach]

the army, everything, every group, the stoners, the. Everything. I was trying to, I wanted to just sort of be, I wanted to just get a taste of it all, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

You did?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. So I got in on with all the clicks, kind of. I mean, I also spent a lot of time by myself too, you know, but I mean, high school, I mean, I was like a lot of teenagers. I mean, I was kind of depressed in high school and stuff, you know, and I mean, I had crushes on girls that I, I, you know, didn't. If I knew what I know now, I could have, I could have made a better effort to, you know, connect with them and stuff. But, but yeah, I was, you know, so it was different. It was more of an internal low light, I guess, you know, high school, you know, but there wasn't any, you know, antagonism happening from students and stuff. So much, you know.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you said your parents divorced when you were an adult. But what about your brothers? How are they?

[Brent Weinbach]

My brothers must have Been. Yeah, there must have been kids, I guess, when they divorce. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Where they just sort of staying together for a little while for the family and stuff.

[Brent Weinbach]

I think they definitely stayed together for me because I think when I was a kid, I kind of wanted them to stay together, and I think they stayed together because I kind of urge it. Even though nowadays I probably tell. I probably say, it's all right. You guys can probably do your own things, you know, if you want. If I could go back, I would go. I'd say, you know what mom and dad, you guys do your explore your individuality.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you get it? Was. Did the divorce make sense now that you look back at it?

[Brent Weinbach]

Definitely. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, by the way, you know what? I. You know what? Kindergarten there was. Not to take it back.

[Ryan Sickler]

Go ahead.

[Brent Weinbach]

But kindergarten, there was some stuff going on there, too, that I forgot. The bullying started even then. You know, not to go out of order here, but there was this one time when these kids were trying to get me to suck somebody's ass. That's what they said. They said, yeah, kindergarten, they were saying, hey, you want to go suck Brian's ass? Yeah, that's what they said. Those are the words. I wouldn't even use it. I'm just quoting, you know, I don't. I wouldn't even use those words. But they said, yeah, I sucked Brian's ass last week. You should. You should suck his ass or whatever. And I. And I thought I kind of was getting tricked into it. I thought, oh, is this a thing that we. That we do? You know. You know what? You know why I got bullied, by the way? I started late. I started a month later than this. The. The year started, you know, because I moved because we moved from North Hollywood.

[Ryan Sickler]

The new kid.

[Brent Weinbach]

I was the new kid. We moved from North Hollywood to Hollywood. And so. And I remember one of the first days I went to school, I was wearing really high shorts and a really long shirt and really high socks. So it almost looked like I was wearing a dress with stockings. I don't know what my mom was thinking, but, yeah, it looked like I was wearing kind of like a hot girl's outfit. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

And I remember this one kind of dirty looking, sleazy kid. I mean, he was. He. I remember him saying, you wearing any underwear underneath that? He actually said that. I'm not kidding. And he was like a dirty kind of kid. He's like one of those pig pen kind of kids. You know, he's had smudges on his face, stuff. He Said, you wearing underwear underneath that? Anyway, so this one day, these kids were trying to get me to suck this guy's ass or whatever. And I was considering it. I was thinking, oh, okay, maybe I'm supposed to do that. And they were saying, yeah. And they were about to go with them in the bathroom and do it. But something in me told me I shouldn't do this. This is the wrong thing. There was a kid named Brian. He was gonna. About to get his. His butt sucked by me, right?

[Ryan Sickler]

And it's already been sucked by some of the other supposedly, according to that.

[Brent Weinbach]

Supposedly, you know, And I just told myself, no, there was two, three kids that were the ones telling me to suck Brian's. Brian's butt. And I said, I just. Something said, don't do it. And I. Instead I went to the teacher, something. Don't suck. Yeah. I don't know. Something said, don't suck this kid. There's something inside of me just that knew. That knew that wasn't the right move. Yeah. And I.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you went to a teacher?

[Brent Weinbach]

I went to my. The teacher, Ms. Takeda, her name was. And she. She. I said this was during some sort of recess or something like that, and I. She happened to be showing some parents around who were thinking about having their kids go to school there. And I said, Mr. Keda, these guys are telling me to suck. Suck Brian's ass. You know, this. That's not cool, right? Or something. Or something like that. I don't know what I said. I said, that's not. I shouldn't do that, right? I'm not trying to suck someone's ass, right? You don't want me to do that, right? I shouldn't suck somebody's ass or something like that. And she. I got in trouble.

[Ryan Sickler]

What you.

[Brent Weinbach]

I got in trouble because she's. And she was saying I was showing those parents around. And you said the thing about the sucking the ass and stuff. And I said, yeah, but I was.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was just about to be sexually molested.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. These kids were trying to get me to suck this ass and stuff. And then. So I got in trouble. But then. But I did tell, you know, kind of telling the other kids. And I said. And I said, but they were telling me to do it. So I don't know why or how this happened, but one. The least active kid in that group, for some reason I called, like, for some reason she got. He got in trouble too, for some reason. And the main culprits were not getting in trouble for, I don't know, how. What the politics were involved in that. But they didn't get in trouble, you know. But yeah, so even back in elementary school. I mean, even back in kindergarten is what I mean. That's early. Yeah, those same kids actually, they squirted chocolate milk on me also in elementary. Yeah. I was just sitting minding my own business, and they just. Just, you know, had the chocolate milk and then they had the straw and they just went. And they just spit it out on me. Stained my shirt, you know, stain my. You know.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you ever fight back? Did you ever get in a fight?

[Brent Weinbach]

I did fight in elementary school. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Fist fight or at least defend yourself physically?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I fought. I fought in.

[Ryan Sickler]

And did what did they started or were you, like, finally fed up and you.

[Brent Weinbach]

I'm trying to think. I think it might have been both. No, I think it was. It was probably both. Me. No, actually, no, I don't. I think it's probably you. Usually. I'm not. I don't want to pick a fight with somebody, you know, or I don't want to get physical with somebody, but there might have been a fight where somebody just. It got to a point where I did hit them, you know, or something like that. And I think in fifth grade, I did fight some. Well, I did fight my. A guy who was my best friend in fifth grade at one point. I think I fought him in sixth grade because he. He got kind of popular and I don't know, he kind of, you know, ditched me or whatever, you know. And then. Then there was another kid I did fight, and in junior high, I did actually almost get into a fight with somebody, but he backed off because he knew I took martial arts. And even though I wouldn't have been able to beat him in the fight, I think he thought that I had some special moves or something.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, man. When you first hear about Bruce Lee and martial arts, when you're a kid, you. You definitely think if you even know that you're some kind of wizard that's gonna whoop my ass.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I. Yeah, I never even thought. And you know, to me, what got me into martial arts originally was a Karate Kid, Right? The movie Karate Kid.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're not taking it because you're getting bullied. You want to defend yourself.

[Brent Weinbach]

It was. That was something that kind of. That. That was part of it in a way, where you see the Karate Kid and you think, oh, he's getting bullied. And then you, you know, take martial arts and you can defend yourself. Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I also. I don't mean Interrupt. But no. Well, also, Karate Kid is here. It's in Reseda. Like, it must have been even bigger and more real here.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

I didn't even consider that. You're right there. The Valley.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Have you ever heard the Sklar brothers joke about. Oh, God, it's one of my favorite things is the All Valley Karate Tournament in Karate Kid. And they're talking about, like, how everyone was going and all. They're saying all this, and they're. They do a bit where they're gonna be late because they're sitting in karate traffic. And I got. Everybody must be coming to this.

[Brent Weinbach]

Man, this karate traffic kept calling it karate. That's funny. Yeah, yeah. No, that we. We had. We had tournaments and stuff in our.

[Ryan Sickler]

How far did you advance?

[Brent Weinbach]

And I became black.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you?

[Brent Weinbach]

I was black. Yeah. And I never went back.

[Ryan Sickler]

You just got it and then you were like, I'm done now.

[Brent Weinbach]

I was a black belt for. So I did martial arts for about nine years, I think. Okay. And then. And, yeah, I was a black belt for a little, you know, maybe a couple years. And then I just. I got. I just. I didn't Never. I didn't really want to do it at a certain point, and I just. My dad wanted me to do it. He wanted me to stay active in some kind of way or something. So, I mean, I was still active in other ways anyway. But could.

[Ryan Sickler]

When you were a black belt at your best, could you have taken your dad.

[Brent Weinbach]

No, no, no, I'm not. I mean, I don't know if it's your smaller frame.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm probably quick.

[Brent Weinbach]

I'm.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, you probably strike quick.

[Brent Weinbach]

No, I don't. I don't.

[Ryan Sickler]

Probably hard to get a hold of. I wrestled. I'm looking at. You got a little. You got like a. You got little Weasley, like. You look like you could. You look like you could do, like, cat, where you can.

[Brent Weinbach]

I'm easily breakable.

[Ryan Sickler]

I think I feel like you get it out of.

[Brent Weinbach]

Actually when the black belt initiation was so hardcore at my.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. What do they do?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, you have to do a lot of things to become a black belt. You have to take a test. You have to. Well, there's a pre. Test, then you have to take a test. Or you got to write an essay at one point.

[Ryan Sickler]

You do.

[Brent Weinbach]

You have to write an essay. Yeah, but one of the things. So there's a test, there's a pretest, or some sort of evaluation. There's the essay. There's also the Initiation. And I guess this is some sort of tradition or something like that, but all of the other black belts put you through this crazy, hours long, intensive, kind of just pain enduring thing, jumping in. Yeah, it is like that basically. And they just have you do all these really rigorous kind of exercises and stuff. It's this endurance test thing, you know. And the whole idea behind the martial arts was mind over matter. So the whole idea is that it's not about physical strength, it's about mental strength or whatever, you know, and probably did give me a lot of focus in my life, you know. But one of the things that we had to do in this part of the initiation is I was initiating with all these Russian, these four Russian. So Hollywood's really Russian. I don't know if, you know, I mean, that's why there was a Russian guy in my elementary school, but there was these four big Russian teens, okay. And I was a pretty small guy. And they, we had it. The five of us had to go into this circle of black belts and it was a really small circle and we had to fight each other. And this is after, I want to say, you know, maybe three hours of just. We're all pretty worn out at this point.

[Ryan Sickler]

Now the five of you are fighting one another in this little.

[Brent Weinbach]

In this little circle.

[Ryan Sickler]

And, and what's the goal here? To be the last one in?

[Brent Weinbach]

I don't know what the goal is, but it seems like I think the goal was to maybe kill us or something like that. But it was.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm sorry, is there, I mean, is there a winner out of you guys?

[Brent Weinbach]

No, I think we're supposed to. They just told us a spot or something like that, but if we got too close to the edge of the circle, they push us in really hard. And anyway, that was bound to happen. It happened and it just became ping pong, you know, not ping pong, I mean, pinball, you know, it was just a pinball machine. Boom, boom, boom. We were just getting pushed and hit and you know, I got punched into the throat on accident at one point. And then, then one, this one guy, Eugene, just going crazy all of a sudden he went, he started yelling and he just started kicking everywhere. And I got kicked in the balls and everything. And it was just so hardcore. That was the, the most hardcore part of that whole initiation was that crazy circle that. And I was in. I was in there with these guys that were totally in a different weight class than me. And getting punched in the throat was. I was gagging at one point. That one that was the point where I almost couldn't go on anymore. You know, I had a. I almost said, I can't do this, but I did. I carried on. And it was nuts, though, man. We had. Then after that, we had to do another thing too. It's actually. It's gonna sound like this is child abuse, actually, or, you know, or teen abuse or something like that, you know,

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, listen, I'm all for. I think everybody kind of needs it.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Not the bullying that you received, but I feel like every person needs to know what it's like to be struck by someone they don't know, have to defend themselves. It's. It's a. It's a frightening thing to be out in the world. And a person who doesn't know you or your family or anything doesn't give a. Whether you live or die is coming to put hands on you.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. I mean, there's more.

[Ryan Sickler]

You actually have dealt with it in life. At least you're familiar with how to grab someone, how to defend your. That first time ever is terrifying.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

What the hell you're doing? You're running on adrenaline. Pure adrenaline.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. I mean, getting physical is something. I. I only done it once as an adult and it was one of my early.

[Ryan Sickler]

But you, through karate, though, you're learning. You're learning mentally how to be able to handle this too. Someone in. That's not. Is.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, they're.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, I'll say this. I definitely feel at this point that I don't have the. Those kind of. I don't have the skills of that anymore. I think that maybe my black belt should be revoked or something.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, it's the walk away. These days.

[Commercial Narrator]

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[Ryan Sickler]

I tell my daughter all the time, I'm just gonna walk away.

[Brent Weinbach]

That is absolutely the best thing.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's when you're in your 20s and you're young and dumb and your ego's telling you to go fight this guy or whatever.

[Brent Weinbach]

That happened once for me in my early 20s, and I regretted it.

[Ryan Sickler]

And what happened?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, it was with another comedian, actually, but.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do I know him? You can tell me later.

[Brent Weinbach]

Louie Katz. Okay. And. But I mean, it's a longer story, but the, the gist of it is. And I initiated it, but I just thought it just felt really stupid to be an adult and be getting. And fighting. Yeah. I mean it just. And I just thought, you know what? Violence is not the answer. And I never got physical ever again, you know, and I never will.

[Ryan Sickler]

What happened when you got physical? Were you fist fighting and stuff? Well, any of your karate moves now you try one.

[Brent Weinbach]

It's kind of feel like if I

[Ryan Sickler]

kick now, I'm tearing a hamstring right away, you know what I mean? Like.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, this is in my 20s. I mean it was. No, it was. I don't know, it's kind of complicated how, how the fight started. You know, basically I slapped him. Okay. And I know that is wrong. It's wrong of me. It's wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong to me. But. And then you said basically, I swear it was wrong. It was wrong exactly how it's. Well, he was being a jerk to me and it was a build up physical part started that was wrong of me and I should never have got here. I should never taken it to a physical level.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that the first time you've ever been physical in your adult life?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yep, first and last. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And. And it got you to a point where you actually smacked?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, it was a. For a year he'd been just being really antagonistic towards me, you know, and. And then he just kept doing it and it was a buildup of that and then so I did that and.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, that flashback of that white motherfucking turd.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just like every time I looked at him, I saw the white poo. You know, actually he's the one friend of mine who knows who you guys are.

[Ryan Sickler]

Friends.

[Brent Weinbach]

He knew. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And we were friends then. Actually we were friends then. But no, it was stupid. The fight didn't actually happen from that, that time though. What happened was, is I called him and I apologized and then. But he didn't really want to hear the apology because he wanted it. He wanted to get me back. And the next time we saw each other, well, we knew we were going to see each other this other day. And then he tried to. He wanted to fight me, but I didn't really want to fight him at that point, you know, and so he punched me a couple times.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Brent Weinbach]

And then we got into a kind of a fight. I mean, I wasn't we had glasses on. I said, well, look, I want you to take off your glasses first before we do anything.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're always about the. Everything. The lunch before the.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Then I told him, can we just go pee real quick? Yeah. Can we get lunch? All right, how about dinner? Dinner.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you smack the. Out of him? Did you get a good one at least?

[Brent Weinbach]

No, I. I didn't. During the fight, he. Most of it was. He had me in a headlock.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, I mean, the initial slap, when you said the voice.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. I mean, his glasses did come off, but it was. You wanted them off, man. I wanted them off. Yeah. I was just trying to get him off. Yeah. I didn't. Yeah. No. I don't know. It was bad. It was a bit. That is a low light.

[Ryan Sickler]

Where were you?

[Brent Weinbach]

At a club. Yeah. Both things happened. At a club. In a club. Yeah. It was in a club. Yeah. No, and. And then we. But, yeah. I mean, anyway, so that was that. Yeah. I mean, during that actual fight, I mean, I punched him in his torso a lot, but I don't know. It was Stu. I felt so stupid. I felt. This is so ridiculous. It feels so kind of barbaric and kind of just, you know, it just seems like this is just a really immature. This is something that kids should do. Oh.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's also. You're lucky that you guys knew each other, because these days, it's not fists anymore. These days, everybody wants to shoot you right away. And even back then, it was. Every now and then, you'd hear someone had a knife. Every now and then. These days, I. I just feel like everyone, look. You travel the country. Everywhere I go, I always look up the carry laws, and I want to make sure, like, when I'm in Kansas City, I know that people are allowed to have a gun on them in the crowd.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You forget where you are sometimes. Somebody could have a. They're not supposed to bring it in, but. Yeah, we're in comedy clubs. They're not scanning anybody.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, sometimes. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

When I was in Kansas City, I had my. The last time my opener had a gun on them, he had. In his back.

[Brent Weinbach]

Jeez. While he was doing his set. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

He came back and the feature told me it was Hannah Dickinson. She told me. And she goes, he has a gun on him. And I go, hey, you got a gun on you? Goes, yeah, man. So I tweeted it that my opener's got a gun on me. And then several people replied to that tweet. I was in the crowd Tonight. And so did I. And I was like, oh, wow. Oh, I forget.

[Brent Weinbach]

Wow.

[Ryan Sickler]

Y' all are so.

[Brent Weinbach]

If you say the wrong place, you get the wrong saying, you get the wrong sensitivity there.

[Ryan Sickler]

Watch out with that crowd work, bro. Yeah, watch out that crowd work.

[Brent Weinbach]

That's kind of, that's actually really kind of scary that, you know, you could say the wrong thing or, you know, saying the wrong thing, the wrong person or whatever, and then they could maybe shoot you or something.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, that can happen outside of a com. That's what I'm saying. That's why don't engage.

[Brent Weinbach]

Maybe shoot your glasses off. Maybe they're real sharp shooters. No, no, I, I, it was so stupid. That was, that was one of the dumbest things I ever did. I mean, that was so stupid. I wish I never did that. Wish I had a clean record. But you know what I needed maybe to do that, to learn that this fighting is not for adults or shouldn't be, you know, physical fighting, not unless

[Ryan Sickler]

you're paid, and that's your job, period. That is it.

[Brent Weinbach]

I just think this is so stupid. You know, I just, I want to talk things out from now on, you know, or just walk away like you said.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, I want to ask you this because we were talking outside before, and you told me you had something happen in an apartment you were in. But I, but now listening, hearing that and then listening to you talk about how you used to, to bathe in dirt, and then you switch gears to,

[Brent Weinbach]

oh, yeah, now I'm a germaphobe now.

[Ryan Sickler]

Right, right. So you're a germaphobe and you get an apartment and it had roaches.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, well, this happened not, not even that long ago. Several years ago I had this apartment and it was great. I never had any issues with this sort of thing for. And I'm so clean, by the way. I keep stuff it, I keep things. You said you were talking about how you dry, dry pretzels. I would do that too. I'd keep dry stuff in the refrigerator just to be on the safe side. Okay. And there was never any issues. But the building, somebody in the. I don't know how it happened. Something happened where the. Everybody in the building was starting to get roaches. And it start. At first it started I just saw one, and then I saw another one two weeks later. And then I saw another one a week later, and then another one a few days later. And then one once I knew there was, it was getting really disturbing is I saw two at one time. I saw. When you See two roaches hanging out. Then I'm thinking, oh, this is.

[Ryan Sickler]

There's 200 more.

[Brent Weinbach]

There's a lot. This is a big problem. And I get. I'm still. It was traumatizing. I'm still. I have goosebumps right now when I think about this. This happened several years ago, and I still. I mean, after. Once I left that situation, it took me three years to really start to not be as on edge about this kind of stuff. But I think what I don't like about it is that it's just. It shows you how little control you have over your environment, you know, or something, or.

[Ryan Sickler]

I, like, has been around since the dinosaurs.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

They're not going anywhere.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

They're gonna be here long after.

[Brent Weinbach]

I mean, they're ancient beings, right?

[Ryan Sickler]

They are literally ancient.

[Brent Weinbach]

So things there. I don't know why. It seems like it's ingrained into our psyche or something like that, that to be disturbed by roaches, even though some people are not, I guess, but they've been around, so it's weird. It's weird that they've been around so long and yet they still are so disturbing, and yet we are still disturbed by them or. Because, I don't know. I think I'm a control freak or something. And I don't. I like to be in control of my environment. And then when these roaches are showing up, I don't have control. And that's that. That invasion, you know, like that. That. I don't know, it's invasion. When someone invades your space, you know, that's a disturbing feeling, you know? I mean, you feel it, you know, even when you go into a haunted house or something and someone's up in your face, you know, trying to scare you and stuff. It, you know. You know, they're not really a ghost or something, but it's. It's still just. There's a chemical reaction in your body that doesn't like something in your space that's, you know, foreign like that, you know, so something crawling around in your home that just disturbed you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Get out of there.

[Brent Weinbach]

I did, eventually, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you have to break a lease or anything?

[Brent Weinbach]

No, no.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you had a place that was great for a while. Somebody moved in or something happened, and here come roaches.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yep. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

I told you outside. We had this place. My brother and I got this place in Baltimore county, and we went through it. It was fine. We move in. I'm telling you. He kept cigarettes in the fridge. It was so bread. It was so crazy. I'd come home from working late at night, I'd flip the switch on hundreds.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, hundreds that. See, that's. That's not even what I experienced.

[Ryan Sickler]

I open a drawer, there'd be 50.

[Brent Weinbach]

Oh my God shells.

[Ryan Sickler]

And they're getting bigger.

[Brent Weinbach]

It's like creep show, dude.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes. We've got them coming to, you know, spray and all this. But what you learn, which is what you learned is it doesn't matter if. If what you do. If your neighbors have roaches, you have roaches.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

If you're an apartment building, if someone's got them, we all got them.

[Brent Weinbach]

I know. It's horrible.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then you can't do any thing about it.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, I heard that the. There was somebody underneath me. Someone had said they saw them in their wind the window of that person's place. So if you're seeing them in the windows, they're everywhere then. And by the way, I didn't have it like that. I didn't see hundreds of them. But it just. You know, even just seeing two at a time or even just seeing one, it just. Oh, man, it makes me. It's traumatized. It really traumatized me.

[Ryan Sickler]

We ended up. We would get sprayed so often.

[Brent Weinbach]

I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown or something like that.

[Ryan Sickler]

One year we were sprayed so often that we just finally kept all our dishes and everything on the table covered with sheets. We were so sick of it.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah. And it was. God, I hated even going to the bathroom, you know, because I would sit on. I remember one time I was going poo on the toilet and I just saw this roach creeping up and I just. What am I supposed to do? You know? So I think I might have got up mid log, you know, I think maybe. Or maybe I sucked it back in or something and I just thought, what do I do? You know? It's like I can't even go poo, you know, man, it was. That was just sucked into the bathroom. Oh my God. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is your place is good now? You're.

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, although I'm so scared looking for now what I do just to monitor because I'm so paranoid about it from what I had before. I have. I mean, maybe the hope people don't think this is inhumane or whatever, but I have these sticky traps, you know, that are in certain corners of the room to monitor, you know, but they do pick up other things like spiders and stuff.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you ever see any roaches in there?

[Brent Weinbach]

No, I haven't yet.

[Ryan Sickler]

But I just don't know what it Was. I used to have this landlord, this guy, he called it Chinese chalk. I don't. That's what he called it.

[Brent Weinbach]

Boric acid.

[Ryan Sickler]

It was a little piece of white whatever. And he would come and it was just something he said. He'd get it down in Chinatown and he would just run it along the baseboard, just trace. I. Shit, I don't know what. I also don't know if it poisoned me and I'll be dead in my 60s, but it could have been boric acid. Is that work?

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, that's something I tried.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is it dry? Is it chalk? Stick it.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, boric acid that I use was a powder, but it was a white. As a white powder. And that kills roaches, supposedly is supposed to do good on them. So maybe there was out.

[Ryan Sickler]

It was more of a deterrent that I think.

[Brent Weinbach]

No, no, but that's the thing. I. They don't even want to go over it. So maybe it might have been a chalk or might have been a. Sick of boric acid or something like that. Maybe. Yeah. I guess when you think of boric, when you hear the word acid, it sounds like something that's going to melt or something or whatever. But no, this stuff is powder or it's a dry substance, you know. But yeah, well, that. I mean, you had it. It sounds like you had it worse.

[Ryan Sickler]

That was horrible.

[Brent Weinbach]

But wait, you had roommates, right?

[Ryan Sickler]

Just me and my brother.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, at least you had each other in a way, because being alone in the apartment was so. I hated it. I just. I didn't want to be. You know, you think of your home as a safe haven, you know, and it wasn't. I didn't want to be home anymore, you know, I hated it. I was by myself and it just.

[Ryan Sickler]

I told you we'd have buddies that would drink too much and sleep over and they'd be laying on the couch and a roach would be crawling across their face. Diet.

[Brent Weinbach]

That's truly disturbing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Look at Brent sleeping over there at that roach on it. But these days it'd be cell phoned and everywhere else.

[Brent Weinbach]

I mean, that. That makes me just. That makes me scared. That makes me so scared. I'm such a par. I'm so paranoid about that kind of stuff now. And I. I look under my bed every night.

[Ryan Sickler]

Every night still I.

[Brent Weinbach]

Before I go to bed, I look underneath.

[Ryan Sickler]

How long you been in a new place?

[Brent Weinbach]

About four years. You have you really. Four years? You're still looking? I'm still looking. I look behind them, get down, look under the bed, then have you and go to bed. I look and also. Well, I'm so paranoid about even or anytime I stay at a hotel. This is for bedbugs more. So, you know, I look, I lift up the mattress of. First of all, this is what I do when I book a hotel. I go. I search for the hotel name and bugs and quotes and I see what comes up. You know, you get, okay, and. Or I'll type, you know, type in roach or something like that to see if there's any reports from people and if there's anything within a year, I'm just. I don't stay there, you know. And, yeah, I lift up the mattress. I lift, you know, I. It's. It's heavy too. You know, Lift up the mattress and do all four corners of the mattress.

[Ryan Sickler]

Have you ever seen them?

[Brent Weinbach]

I saw one bedbug once, and it was a room I was sharing with my friend Doug Lucenhop, who's a comedian. We were doing a tour and we shared a room and he had some clothes on the floor. And I noticed it in the bathroom, actually. It must have gotten in through a vent in the bathroom or something. But I saw it. It looked like a bedbug was flat and round. And, you know, I called him over. We took a picture of it and verified it was definitely a bedbug. We did get the room for free,

[Ryan Sickler]

you know, they didn't move you.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, we. I saw it in the morning after I take. I took a shower and I saw it in the bathroom. And we were already gonna leave, you know, we were doing a kind of a road tour, you know, And. Yeah, anyway, it was. So I did see one once, but that's enough for me to be paranoid and. But I had roaches, actually. I mean, I had roaches in the hotels, you know, I remember one of the first time I was in Austin, we did the Club in Austin, actually. Tom Segura, he was. Did the shows with me. It was September in Austin. It was really. This is in 2007. It was really humid and I don't know, there was a couple roaches in my room. But the craziest thing was I was using the computer in the lobby and I saw something fly into the. I don't know, I saw something dark fly. I thought it was a bird or something. Something flew in out of the corner of my eye. I saw something. I don't know, it flown somewhere. And then I looked down on the keyboard in front of me. There was this giant roach. It was a flying roach that. Yeah, it had Flown down or I don't know if it come from the ceiling and went onto the keyboard. But it was crazy. And I was just trying to use the Internet, but I thought, you know, maybe, maybe the roach wants to use the Internet, you know, So I let him, I let him have it. I let him have it. He's trying to go on some porn sites and stuff.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you for doing this episode. Before I we wrap it up here, I want to hear advice that you would give to 16 year old Brent Weinbach.

[Brent Weinbach]

All right, 16 year old Brent Weinbach. I would tell because, you know, that was. Yeah, I was kind of depressed back then. You know, in high school I would say, my advice would say switch to coconut milk instead of real milk. Or just, or you know, use. Yeah, because man, I, that's. Sixteen is really when my bowel movements got real bad.

[Ryan Sickler]

Really?

[Brent Weinbach]

Yeah, I think that's when I started to.

[Ryan Sickler]

Just the dairy and all that.

[Brent Weinbach]

I don't know what it was. Something kicked in there at that time when I was, I had difficult times on the toilet.

[Ryan Sickler]

So coconut milk will be the answer.

[Brent Weinbach]

Well, I think coconut milk is just a nectar of the gods or something, you know, it's like drinking a cloud to me, you know, it's a great alternative. We're talking plain coconut milk. Okay. No, no, not any sweet, no added sugar or anything like that. Get coconut milk. That's one advice I'd give. And I would also say, I mean, just stop being a. And just start, you know, just talk to the girl. That's what I say. You know what I mean? Or just ask her out. No, I mean, yeah, yes, but that is great advice. But I mean, yeah, no, but stop worrying about it and just. It's so easy actually, you know what I mean? It could have been so easy. I don't know why it was so hard. In my mind. It's almost like in my mind back then I wanted it to be hard or something, you know, it's like I wanted it to be a challenge anyway. I would say it's not a challenge. Just do it, you know. I'd also say, hey, don't worry if you're depressed now. Don't worry about it. When you get to college, it's going to be really fun. You're going to meet some really fun friends, you know. All right, good. That's what I'd say. That goes for any 16 year old. Just wait. You think that you're depressed in high school, man, you're gonna have some laughs. You're gonna have some serious laughs coming up also, you know, I feel like stuff becomes more and more fun as you get older. I think, you know, just college is more fun than high school, I think. And then, I don't know, 20s is more fun than that. 30s is, 30s are the best. And then 40s, it starts to suck a little bit, but. And it kind of just goes downhill from there. But, but it is going to be fun going, you know, after high school, you're gonna be. There is a fun part. The 30s is fun, you know, but in your 40s, you start to have a midlife crisis and stuff and you start to kind of like not know what you're doing and stuff. But. No, I'm just kidding. No, there's, it all gets better. It's all, it just becomes more and more fun, you know, and the honeydew gets more and more sweet.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Thank you for doing this. And before we wrap up right there, one more time, plug everything you'd like, please.

[Brent Weinbach]

All right, Once again, please check out the Stand up special, Popular culture. It's on YouTube. And heck, if you want to see my first special, you can see that on my Vimeo account, vimeo.combrentweinbach it's called Appealing to the Mainstream. And May 7th at the Comedy Studio in Boston and Hollywood Improv February 25th. And also, well, Cobbs Comedy Club January 24th. And the Chicken Coop is the live stream I do with my sister who's really funny. She's one of the, she's the funniest person I know. And that's every Monday at 6pm Pacific Time. It's on YouTube on my YouTube channel. And Brent Weinbach comedy on Instagram and Brent Weibach podcast. And if you're into video game music, Legacy Music Hour. Check that out.

[Ryan Sickler]

Awesome, dude. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Brent Weinbach]

Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Ryan, as always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media. We'll talk to you all next week.

[Brent Weinbach]

Sam.