79: The Wayback #79 | Yannis Pappas

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Wayback with Ryan Sickler – Episode #79 featuring Yannis (Giannis) Pappas

Release Date: July 3, 2025

In Episode #79 of "The Wayback with Ryan Sickler," host Ryan Sickler welcomes comedian Giannis Pappas for a nostalgic journey through Giannis's formative years in 1980s Brooklyn, New York. The conversation is rich with anecdotes, humor, and heartfelt reflections, painting a vivid picture of growing up in a bustling urban environment.

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1. Childhood in 1980s Brooklyn

Nostalgic Beginnings: Giannis opens the discussion with a playful nod to time travel, humorously interacting as if he's back in 1983. He reminisces about the simplicity of childhood entertainment, highlighting the shift from black-and-white TVs to color as a significant change during his youth.

[01:04] Giannis: "I grew up in a black and white TV. I used to watch the Honeymooners at 11:30 and then Star Trek at midnight."

Playing Neighborhood Games: Giannis vividly describes playing improvised baseball and wiffle ball with makeshift bases and strike zones, using neighborhood landmarks like apartment buildings and garden gates to simulate the game's mechanics.

[03:12] Giannis: "We broke windows. We played running bases right up there… Wiffle ball was huge when I was a kid."

2. Navigating a Diverse and Dynamic Neighborhood

Understanding Brooklyn's Complex Landscape: Giannis provides insight into the socio-economic diversity of Brooklyn, explaining how a few blocks could drastically change the neighborhood's atmosphere. He contrasts his relatively good area with adjacent "bad" neighborhoods, emphasizing the proximity of contrasting environments.

[05:51] Giannis: "From where I lived was kind of good, but two blocks, and you're in bad. It's so close."

Memorable Locations: He shares nostalgic memories of playing basketball in schoolyards and local courts, which were once rough areas but have transformed over the years into more affluent neighborhoods like Park Slope.

[06:30] Giannis: "Those courts were just black tops and glass chain nets… Now it's all different."

3. Summer Camp and Formative Experiences

All America Camp Trauma: One of the most intense segments revolves around Giannis's traumatic experiences at All America Camp at New York Military Academy. He recounts harsh treatment by Marine counselors, including physical abuse and hazing, which left a lasting impact on him.

[14:17] Giannis: "They would pick us and hang us on hooks by our underwear. They would beat us. Marina counselors were torturing us."

Building Friendships Amid Adversity: Despite the hardships, Giannis formed lasting friendships, including with Chi Ali, who later became a rapper. They even retaliated against their abusive counselors, showcasing their resilience and camaraderie.

[15:48] Giannis: "We made a lotion and threw it on him while he was sleeping. We got kicked out because of that."

4. High School Antics and Personal Growth

Class Clown Persona: Giannis describes his high school years as a blend of humor and troublemaking. Known as the class clown, his antics often led to multiple suspensions, yet his popularity kept him from being permanently expelled.

[22:05] Giannis: "I was a class clown. When I got suspended, they put up Free Giannis signs. It was around the time of the movie Ferris Bueller, I think."

Adventures and Missteps: He shares stories of stealing sodas from the school cafeteria and even cars during his teenage years, illustrating a rebellious streak tempered by youthful naivety.

[23:35] Giannis: "I kicked open the door, handed out sodas like Robin Hood, and got straight up suspended."

5. Teenage Exploration and Risks

Early Sexual Experiences: Giannis candidly discusses his early forays into sexuality, including awkward first experiences and the challenges of navigating relationships without modern resources like the internet.

[27:11] Giannis: "When you ate a girl out, you had to just… It was like licking a bear's head. It was just hair."

Dangerous Playground Endeavors: From riding atop subway cars to engaging in street games that sometimes turned violent, Giannis's tales paint a picture of the adventurous—and sometimes perilous—nature of his youth.

[32:02] Giannis: "We used to ride in between the train cars, on the edge… It was stupid and dangerous, but we did it."

6. Reflections on Change and Growth

Evolving Neighborhoods: Giannis reflects on how neighborhoods like SoHo and Tribeca have transformed from desolate areas to some of the most expensive real estate in America, contrasting them with his memories of rougher Brooklyn locales.

[35:56] Giannis: "Now, SoHo is one of the best neighborhoods, but when I was a kid, it was just warehouses and artists. Same with Tribeca and Dumbo."

Personal Growth and Moving Forward: As the conversation winds down, Giannis acknowledges his journey from mischievous youth to a successful comedian, highlighting the personal growth and resilience that shaped his path.

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7. Guest Promotion and Closing Remarks

Towards the end of the episode, Giannis promotes his latest projects, encouraging listeners to check out his special "Property Owner" on YouTube and stay connected through his website and live performances.

[36:16] Giannis: "Watch my newest special on YouTube. Property Owner on YouTube. Just go. Property Owner Giannis Pappas."

Ryan Sickler wraps up the episode by thanking Giannis for sharing his vivid and often raw childhood stories, emphasizing the show's essence of taking listeners on a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

[36:27] Ryan Sickler: "As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media. We'll talk to you all next week."

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Key Takeaways:

• Resilience Amid Adversity: Giannis's stories underscore the resilience required to navigate challenging environments and abusive situations.

• Transformation of Urban Spaces: The evolution of Brooklyn neighborhoods from tough areas to upscale locales highlights broader social and economic shifts.

• Humor as a Coping Mechanism: Despite traumatic experiences, Giannis maintains a humorous outlook, using comedy to process and share his past.

• Importance of Community and Friendship: Strong friendships formed during difficult times provided support and shaped Giannis's personal and professional life.

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Notable Quotes:

• Giannis Pappas: "We broke windows. We played running bases right up there… Wiffle ball was huge when I was a kid." [03:12]

• Giannis Pappas: "They would pick us and hang us on hooks by our underwear. They would beat us." [14:17]

• Giannis Pappas: "We made a lotion and threw it on him while he was sleeping. We got kicked out because of that." [15:48]

• Giannis Pappas: "I was a class clown. When I got suspended, they put up Free Giannis signs." [22:05]

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This episode offers a candid and heartfelt exploration of Giannis Pappas's upbringing, providing listeners with a blend of humor, nostalgia, and poignant reflections on personal growth and the ever-changing urban landscape.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, baby. We're gonna be here all day. We're gonna be here all day, baby. I like that kind of party.

[B]

Welcome back to the Way Back, everybody. Ryan Sickler here. Thank you for supporting this show. This is a fun one you gotta watch. I love bringing these old stories to life. I'm very excited to have this guest back here with me today. Ladies and gentlemen, Giannis Pappas. Welcome to the Way Back, bro.

[A]

What's up? It's good to be here in 1983.

[B]

It's 83, bro.

[A]

What's up?

[B]

I'm 10 and 83. How old are you in 83?

[A]

I'm 83. I 7.

[B]

All right, before we get into some old stories right there, promote your special. Promote anything you want.

[A]

Yeah. Go watch my special on YouTube right now. It's called Property Owner. Watch the History Hyenas podcast and see my live dates on my website, Giannispep comedy.com.

[B]

Great.

[A]

I don't even know what a website is. I don't even know what I just said. I'm in 1983.

[B]

That's a good point. That's a good point.

[A]

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what I just said, man. Go watch my stuff on. On a black and white TV. I didn't have color till maybe the 80s.

[B]

Is that right?

[A]

Yeah. I grew up in a black and white. I used to watch. I used to watch the Honeymooners at 11:30 and then Star Trek at midnight.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

On a TV that was black and white, that had the dial.

[B]

I'm curious how many people at one point had to get up to turn the channel as a kid?

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Get up and turn the channel.

[A]

Yeah. I don't know.

[B]

I mean, they're going away and turn that.

[A]

Yeah. Sometimes you would just watch something because.

[B]

You didn't want to turn it.

[A]

You didn't want to get up. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, so you started with black and white, huh? I don't know. I mean, we had a small one in the house, you know, had the antennas with the foil and everything on a TV tray. That was. That was. Baby, remember that? But I remember our first TV was like. It wasn't just a tv. It was like a console, like. Yeah. With tube in it and everything. Took people. Several people to bring it in the house.

[A]

And we had one color TV in the living room, and then all. There was like two or three other ones in bedrooms that were. That were black and white. Yeah, they were black and white. So my TV in my room was black and white.

[B]

Brooklyn New York, Brooklyn, New York is. Do you remember your old address?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Are people's or family still there?

[A]

Nobody's still there.

[B]

Let's look it up. What's the address?

[A]

628 Third street right there. Right on Prospect Park. That's my house.

[B]

This is your building here.

[A]

You see the black door? The. On the right?

[B]

That one over there.

[A]

One. That's it.

[B]

That's your house?

[A]

That's where I grew up.

[B]

So this is your bottom right down here?

[A]

Bottom room or living room right there? Yeah, my parents room was right above there like that. Those black windows up there, it's my parents room.

[B]

And what's the white windows to the right of that?

[A]

That's another house.

[B]

So they're all. So you're just straight up in there.

[A]

Those two floors right there. This is where I grew up.

[B]

And what are you doing here? What are you getting into during these days?

[A]

Oh, we used to play. Oh, this is crazy. So in front of the house is where we played baseball. Right. So the str.

[B]

So we.

[A]

That right in that square in front of my house was the batter's box. And then the pitcher would pitch there. And then if you scroll up, there's an apartment building on the corner. You see that? You see that garden there?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You hit it in there, it's a home run.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

You hit it in the street, it's a foul ball. And if you turn around, turn to the other side of the street. So we just played. We played those. Those houses, those gates. We played wiffle ball on those gates. And the gates were the strike zone. So wiffle ball was huge when I was a kid. So you pitch from the street, and then you'd have to wait for cars or whatever.

[B]

Right?

[A]

And then the gate was the strike zone. So you. You'd batter up right next to the gate and. And we'd hit him in. And you'd hit him in the windows. On the other side. We broke windows. We play running bases. Right up there, if you keep turned to the right. So right on that apartment building, in front of that apartment building, we played running bases. Now running bases was where people run back and forth and you try to catch them. It's like a run, a rundown in baseball.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Two bases. We called it bases. We played that there. And then the park is over there. And we stayed away from the park because that was dangerous.

[B]

Was it?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Even back then?

[A]

Back then it was. Well, back then it was when it was dangerous. Now it's not.

[B]

I mean, where I live is very huge.

[A]

Huge. So that's Prospect park.

[B]

And what's going on? Oh, this is a big park.

[A]

It's a big park.

[B]

Drive through this park.

[A]

Yeah, that park is big. Okay, so in there, I got my Big Wheel stolen, my bike stolen, my Walkman stolen.

[B]

I mean, how do you get a Big Wheel?

[A]

Did they just come take it? Yeah.

[B]

Did they really?

[A]

I. I experienced crime from when I had a big Wheel and I had a Chips Big Wheel.

[B]

Oh, Kirsten, look up the Chips Big Wheel.

[A]

Chip Big Wheel. It was stolen when I. I guess I was, what, three or four?

[B]

Look at Erica Strata's picture on there.

[A]

And I was psyched to get that, too. Oh, I love chips. When I was a kid, everyone loved chips.

[B]

And you're just right. Who are you riding through the park with?

[A]

We all had big Wheels, and we would go the. The. I grew up, like, you know, a block from the park. So we ride up the block and, you know, there was a couple bad neighborhoods that, like, contiguous to mine. Like, on the right was, like, Crown Heights, and the other side of the park was very bad. And then when I was growing up, if you walk down, like, my area was decent and then. But Brooklyn was like this. And in some ways, some places still are, but you go two blocks and you're in bad. So from where I lived was kind of good, but two blocks, which is hard for people who didn't grow up in the city to understand because it's so close. But really, if you go walk. So from my block, if you go down past 7th and then you hit 6th Avenue when I was growing up, you're on the cusp. And then Fifth Avenue was bad. Like, really bad. So it was only a couple blocks.

[B]

Creep into there, though.

[A]

When you got older, we'd go down there and play basketball and get. And, you know, and get called Bird. At the time, if you were white, you were called Bird. Wow.

[B]

Oh, Larry Bird.

[A]

Bird, yeah. And you got fouled a little extra harder. And that's where I played basketball. That's 51, that schoolyard right there. You're actually on it. If you turn the other way, right there is 51, that building, and then the schoolyards are right. The. The courts I grew up playing on are back there. And that's what I played was basketball as a kid. If you go down that block right there, we'll go to the basketball courts.

[B]

This is crazy, huh?

[A]

Yeah. And. Yeah, there's it now. It's all different. Those are the courts here.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And, dude, it did not look like that When I was a kid, they were just black tops and there was glass chain nets. No nets and glass. And it was a very bad area. And now it's all. You know, Park Slope is one of the nicest areas in, in Brooklyn.

[B]

Is that right?

[A]

Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. And yeah, that's, that's who I grew up playing basketball, drinking quarter waters. Do you remember?

[B]

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[A]

Where these little drinks, they cost a quarter and there they are.

[B]

Oh yeah, I didn't know that's what they were called.

[A]

We would call them quarter waters. Yeah, yeah. And it's just there it is there.

[B]

Says you drink it and you feel.

[A]

The burn from the food die and the sugar.

[B]

Yeah, it's just, it's just freeze. Freezy pop unfrozen.

[A]

Dude, you. It would burn your throat. But you know, that's what we would eat. I mean it was just all pizza slices, Sicilians, quarter waters and Italian ices. That's how, that's what we would eat.

[B]

That's what we did.

[A]

And we just grew up outside. Back then, outside, we played manhunt on the block.

[B]

What's that mean?

[A]

So manhunt is. We called it roundup, right? So it's like you. You. You tag someone and they become part of your gang, and you go find other people who are hiding, and the person who you can't find is the winner. Then we played kick the can, which was another one where you put a can on the floor. It was usually a ball, though. And everyone would hide, and then the person who had the ball was looking for them, and they'd go, tap, tap, tap. I see Giannis at 628. And then you were caught, you'd have to come out and you were in jail, and then someone would come out to try to free you by kicking the ball. And if they got the. Because you could leave the ball and go look for the person, and that would give the person, another kid, an opportunity to run and kick. But if you got back to the ball and said, tap, tap, I see him coming, right? And then he goes in. He goes in jail. And then the big one was stupid.

[B]

Yeah, that was the big one. How'd you guys play?

[A]

So if you go to the block, you take a blue ball, right? And you go to steps. Like some of the houses had steps on them. So we would play it. The funny thing is, is we would just play. Go down the block a little bit. I'll show you exactly where we'd play. You see that stoop? See, with the beige. The beige one?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We played stoop ball right there. So you see those stairs?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you take the blue ball and you. Somebody plays on the sidewalk. You have one or two kids in that narrow area playing the field. And you take the blue ball and you throw it against the step. And if you hit it just right, it goes into the street. That's a home run. If a person catches it, it's an out. God, you know, if you. If it goes.

[B]

So you're sort up there pitching and throwing the ball and trying to get it past the guys in the street.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

God.

[A]

Passed on the sidewalk. If it goes into the street over their head, it's a home run. Yeah. So you want to get it right.

[B]

So one day you're just chucking this thing at the steps.

[A]

Chucking. The thing is.

[B]

Go back to that first picture of this one you showed us, Kirsten, what I noticed here, look, right here. This stoop right here. Look, they got a plant on it. You can't do it anymore. A little bit more to the left over here. Yeah.

[A]

Yo, nobody does these things anymore. But I don't even see kids outside anymore. I mean, when I was growing up, that whole block was that we were all just outside. We would meet outside and play these games. And my next door neighbors were my. My neighborhood used to be all Irish, right. They still have a St. Patty's Day parade before the big one in the city down Prospect park west from Windsor Terrace. And so there was this family that lived next door called the Crowleys. And it was this old woman with her brother that lived there, and she would. We would play outside and she would knock on her window and say, get off my property. And she was like that, you know, the prototypical, like, creepy neighbor that you had next door. Like, it was dirty in there. She never came outside. She lived right next door. And my bedroom window. It's hard for people who don't grow up this. With houses this close. My bedroom window, literally.

[B]

Where is it? In here?

[A]

Yeah. So in the court, there's a little. In the back there, there's a backyard. But our houses are connected. So her window and my window were like this, literally.

[B]

Oh, Literally, if she opened her window.

[A]

And I opened my window, I could crawl into her house.

[B]

Oh, that close.

[A]

That close.

[B]

Oh, crawl.

[A]

So the noise was that we just heard each other. Yeah. I mean, I could literally crawl from my window into hers. This is wild to just look at your old block. Yeah. I hooked up with girls on my basement stairs outside. Where.

[B]

If you going down there?

[A]

Yeah. If you go close, you could see there's stairs that go to the basement out front. And you see that gate? So there's stairs that go down there, and then it leads to the basement door. But in. There's so much humidity in there and spiders and mosquitoes. You just go down there and hook up and just come out, and you just. You would look like you had chickenpox. Just bit up. Bit up. What.

[B]

What camps are you going to here?

[A]

I went to. I went to this camp called All America Camp at New York Military Academy. And our. This was the stupidest thing my parents ever let me do. I've actually talked about this in therapy. I know we're not on the honeydew, but that's okay. It's also an indication of how different the time was. Our counselors were Marines, right? They were marines in the 80s.

[B]

In the 80s, yeah.

[A]

They beat us. Like, they literally beat us. When I look back now, at the time we Were like, oh. So they would beat us. So the way they would wake us up. And this was a camp. It was a sports camp. Yeah.

[B]

And not 18. And we were kids in the military.

[A]

They woke us up by picking our beds up. Me and my best friend went right. Who I grew. Who actually grew up on my block across the street. They would pick the bottom of the bed up while you were at least four of them, not just one dude. Like you're a little kid sleeping on a bed. It was a single bed. They'd pick up the bottom of the bed and drop it. So you woke up.

[B]

Bang.

[A]

Just bang. And, like, panicked. Then they would take us and they'd hang us on hooks by our underwear. Like wedgies. Yeah. They would take a tennis racket, put it on your stomach, and then get a brush. And they would comb. They would. It hurts so much. And they would combine. They would take the brush and rub it on the tennis racket, and then it would create a honeycomb on your. Of, like, abuse. They would mark you. They beat us.

[B]

What the hell is this camp?

[A]

Yeah. I actually.

[B]

Supposed to be a sports camp. Is that what it was?

[A]

It was supposed to be. I actually went to this camp. This is more of a honeydew thing, but it's actually funny now when you think about what kind of. I went to the camp with my. My best friend at the time, who I grew up with, and. And we became good friends at this camp with Chi Ali, who went to the camp with me, who ended up becoming a rapper. Chi Ali was Drez's cousin from Black Sheep. He did the song. I don't know if you remember. Age is nothing but a number. And they used to beat all three of us, the counselors. And they had us so scared. They kept telling us on the last night of camp they were going to beat us up. And we were petrified. We were, like, living in fear of these counselors. So we actually had to find a hiding spot on the camp where we were going to hide from them. On the last night, we ended up getting kicked out of the camp because we were doing to another kid what they were doing to us. Like, we made, like, a lotion and, like, threw it on him while he was sleeping.

[B]

And his parents, they were doing that to you, too?

[A]

They were doing all types of horrible.

[B]

Torturing.

[A]

Torturing us, basically. Yeah, they were. Basically. And they thought it was funny, but they were marines and they were hazing us. And these were the freaking counselors. The head of the count. We had to do taps. We had to. The. The. The. We had to. The marriage. Like the national anthem. And they'd lift the bag, and we'd stand there in quiet like. I don't know why my parents sent me to this thing one time or over and over. No, I went one time. One summer. Then I went to Elaine Robbins at Hilltop. First time I fingered a girl. That's where things got good. This was a traumatic experience. All America camp. These people would have got sued now.

[B]

Yeah, but this is just.

[A]

They beat us. Yeah.

[B]

It's still going.

[A]

Yeah, it's still going. It's called Lane Robbins at Hilltop.

[B]

Oh, Lane.

[A]

Great experience. Except one time we went on a horseback overnight in the Adirondack Mountains. And it was a lightning rainstorm, and me and a couple friends ran out and went under this tarp and we got electrocuted.

[B]

You really did?

[A]

Really did.

[B]

What happened?

[A]

We were on a horseback overnight. Lane Robbins at Hilltop. There it is.

[B]

Where are you going for this?

[A]

This was in Jersey. No, this was upstate New York. Adirondack Mountains.

[B]

And you get dropped off for what, a week?

[A]

No, we did. I did eight weeks. Oh, two months. You're there two months? Yeah. You could do four weeks or eight.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

Can you go to that 1989, cabin 14. Holy.

[B]

Are you in that?

[A]

No, I have pictures. This I can send you, though. I have the picture, but I recognize these kids. I was that kid in the middle. Look at the mullets, dude.

[B]

Yeah, the mullet.

[A]

Yeah. But this is around the time I went, sometime in the 80s. I was there. And all the counselors were from, like, England and Europe. Yeah. So this is the first time I kissed a girl. First time I fingered a girl. And I remember.

[B]

Same girl you kissed?

[A]

No, different girl. Shout out, Gina Ma.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

First girl I kissed was Gina Ma. I'd be horrible if she sees. Well, just a kiss. And there's. That's the logo right there on the left. I remember how.

[B]

How old are you when your first kiss.

[A]

First kiss had to be, like, 13, 12, 13.

[B]

Where were you?

[A]

We would play at night, somehow. We would get together at night. They let us, and we would play truth or dare and, like, you know, things like that. And we were able to sneak out at night somehow and meet up with the girls. They were on another side of the camp, but we would meet up somehow and. Yeah, I remember. And I didn't know what I was doing, so I just squeezed it. I remember that. I had no idea. Squeeze what a vagina.

[B]

Oh, you talking about the girl you finger? Yeah, I Was like your bike horn.

[A]

It was just squeeze. I was patting it. I didn't know what I was doing. I was patting it.

[B]

Why would you. Right.

[A]

Yeah. There was no Internet then. There was. Nobody told me. You learned everything from other kids.

[B]

Kids.

[A]

If there was another kid that told me the way you hook up with a girl is by banging a dude, I would just be like, I guess that's what you do because you learn from older kids.

[B]

Here's the other thing, too. Now, you. You grew up in the city, but we have so many people who found their. Would get their porn in the woods.

[A]

Oh, the porn.

[B]

Where would you get your porn?

[A]

No, we got you see?

[B]

Where would you hide it?

[A]

City kids is different. You go. You go buy it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And the dudes.

[B]

But I mean, who's sharing? You know what I mean?

[A]

There was one kid. Yeah, there's always.

[B]

There's always this one. We all don't have.

[A]

Yeah, we had the magazines and we had the VHS tapes, and he was the provider. So it would go through the whole friend group so that I'd have it for a little while.

[B]

And where would you hide it?

[A]

Oh, I hide it in my back room. I had this, like, armoire. It was like a kid's armoire, a blue armoire. It was like. There was no closet in my bedroom, so it was the closet. So between the wall and that on the side, I would put them in there. So it was always behind that. Or then we had a. My drawers behind the draw. Like. What do you call those? Bureau. So behind the bureau, I got. Yeah, it's behind there. And, yeah, you just would bust in the magazines. So you'd get them from your friends. You'd be like, dude, I can't even see it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it would just rip you remember that? It would just. I mean, I don't know. We all just did it busted in the magazine. I guess we didn't know yet to, like, go get napkins and stuff and. Yeah, so he was the provider. He was the provider. And he would get them. He would go buy him. He was the kid that would buy them. And, you know, you find some Indian dude, some Hispanic or South Asian guy. Now I know what they're called. But then we just called them Indians. And we called everyone who's Hispanic, Puerto Ricans. I didn't. We didn't know about all the variations. And they had candy stores, right. Called bodegas. So you go to the bodega and you get the porno Mads. And it was. We'd always Buying them was always thing. It was so scary. We'd go in, we'd look at the Sports Illustrated. We'd look at. And then you just grab one. There was always a dirty mag section.

[B]

Cherry or some shit.

[A]

And you just grab it and you put it with the Sports Illustrated. You just put it down. And they always just took the money. You just did it. And then when we bought cigarettes, we would always go like, yeah, hey, my dad's outside. We always pretend like, yeah, my dad just. Can I get a pack of Marlboro Lights for my dad outside? And they would give it to you forties? Just like, for my dad, they just give it. Yeah, there. There's a 40 right there. That's me in high school drinking a 40. We used to drink those.

[B]

Turtleneck.

[A]

Turtleneck, Yankee. Look at another one.

[B]

Oh, you loved 40s?

[A]

Oh, we. That's all we drank was 40s. And we smoked blunts. That's me in the bedroom of my mom. That. The windows, I guess when I was 10 or 11 or something. That's my dad on the wall. Pictures up here, too. Those. That's my grandfather on the left up there. Those are my brothers. That's my dad on the left.

[B]

Is this the inside of the house we just saw inside of the house?

[A]

Yeah, that's my brother right there with the basketball. Yeah, there's my. My other. My two brothers are up there. That's my one brother next to me. That's me as a baby. And then my brother. And then on the left, third, second row, that's my other brother right there. Yeah, there's pictures of me. Yeah. And that's me at my friend Mark's house. I. I know the house drinking a 40.

[B]

Tell me about high school. You said you got suspended.

[A]

Oh, so. Yeah. And I was like. I was a class clown, but I was like, everyone liked me. I was like, kind of like Ferris Bueller. It was weird because when I got suspended, they put up Free YANA signs in the school.

[B]

Did they really?

[A]

They did, yeah. And it was around the time of the movie. That's why I think they did it. But it's free honest signs. So I got suspended a few times because I was. But I wasn't a bad kid. It wasn't like a violent kid, like the nerds like me. I would actually, when I got kicked out of a school, they petitioned. They wrote a petition to get me back because I was popular. But this was a time where there was the school cafeteria. There was a. They had all the sodas in A. In a bin. And I'm not a bin. A closet. And it was locked, right? Kids are stupid, dude. So it was locked, but the bottom of the door was like a wood panel that was like a little, kind of, like, thin. Like one of those. You know, like a thin. So I kicked it open. I kicked the bottom square out, went in there and was just fucking handing out sodas. I went in there and stole sodas, and I was just handing them out like Robin Hood. Like, soda Robinhood, like Dr. Pepper just handed him out. And, like, thinking back, I'm like, did I. How did I not think I was gonna get. I just didn't care, I guess I just didn't care because I stole all the sodas and all the kids. This was ninth grade. Okay, Ninth grade. Ninth grade.

[B]

So they figure you're. What do they call stealing then?

[A]

Steal. I got suspended. Yeah, I mean, I got straight up suspended.

[B]

I can't remember a week or two.

[A]

I don't even remember the amount of days. But, yeah, I mean, I obviously got caught. There was a commotion down there. All the kids were.

[B]

Yeah, I was.

[A]

I remember I was. I was in there and I was squatting through the scare. I also. I destroyed school property.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

So I'm sitting through the square that I kicked out, and I'm handing out sodas like. Like I'm the ice cream man. And I got suspended. It was one of the many times, but they put up up signs for Giannis when I was suspended, which was very funny. Yeah, that was. It was a crazy time, dude.

[B]

Same high school every time you get suspended?

[A]

No, different high school. Like, I got kicked out of.

[B]

You got kicked out of a high school for what?

[A]

Behavior problems.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah. And not. And again, I wasn't a violent kid or bad kid. It was class clown.

[B]

But they kicked you out?

[A]

Yeah, because I was. I was so popular, I would distract the other kids. I'm not exaggerating either. I was just a jokester all the time, and I couldn't resist. I was hyperactive. And.

[B]

So where do they send you then?

[A]

So then I had to go to a different school. Yeah.

[B]

Is it a disciplinary school, though, or just a different school?

[A]

Different schools. And when I graduated, I just made it.

[B]

What year are you shifting high school?

[A]

I shift. So I did two ninth grades. So my name. Yeah.

[B]

Did you really?

[A]

Yeah, my first ninth grade. I didn't go to class ever.

[B]

Oh, that's.

[A]

So my GPA was 0.67. I'm not exaggerating. I had a 0.67 GPA. I wouldn't go to class. I would.

[B]

And I think people have blown higher DUI numbers.

[A]

It was a point. It was a D minus average. And so where are you going, though?

[B]

Where are you going in. Are you in the building? And just off.

[A]

Are you not going in the building? In the building? I would. Yeah, I would.

[B]

Where are you?

[A]

I was in the building and I doing class.

[B]

Where are you? What are you doing?

[A]

When everyone else go play basketball, I would leave the school grounds. I mean, I was a wild kid. I was just like, couldn't. I did what I wanted.

[B]

You don't drive there, right? So you could just walk right out.

[A]

Yeah, you could walk out. We all took the train to school.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

We would all get mugged on the train. It was just a weird time. This. The 80s in New York were horrible. Like, it was just brutal.

[B]

You went to another whole night?

[A]

Yeah, I went with my girlfriend at the stair. Like, we would go on the staircase, you know, the staircase to the schools. And, you know, I remember I got a hand job in the school for my girlfriend on the stairs.

[B]

That's crazy.

[A]

In school.

[B]

In like. And not in a catwalk.

[A]

Hidden somewhere on the stairwell. Damn, dude. On the stairwell? Yeah, on the stairwell back then.

[B]

Probably took two seconds.

[A]

Well, I remember one of the first times I ate a girl out in high school.

[B]

In the school was.

[A]

No, it was in her apartment building. I can't say this. I don't know who watches this. I don't want to say. I always say I don't know who's watching, you know, but. Because, I mean, the person would know.

[B]

You know, don't say their name.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's so specific.

[A]

Yeah, well. But it's too good of a story.

[B]

Can you tell it without naming anybody?

[A]

Well, when I. This was before anyone shaved anything.

[B]

Yeah, Nobody.

[A]

You remember that? Yeah, it was just bushes, right?

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

So I don't even think I knew what a vagina looked like till like 99, because it was just covered.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[A]

So when you ate a girl out, you had to just. It was so much hair. Yeah, it was just so much hair, dude. And you now it's like, great. You get right in there.

[B]

You get right in there.

[A]

Get to the. You get to what you get. But then you, like, were. It was like licking a bear's head. It's like licking your dad's hair. It's just hair. And like, the first time. First time I did it, like, you know, the hair is just. It's summer. There's a lot of funk that's caught in there, you know. First time I just. I just threw up on a stair in the stairway. On. It was in the stairway. Purpose just I turned around and just heaved. Oh, yeah. And I felt horrible. But looking back, it's like, how didn't everybody. Like, how did every even, like sucking dick? Like, how did you do it with that mount? Your face would just come into this stinky mound of hair and your balls were all hairy. Like, now I shave down, I shave my balls. Like, it's a nice experience. Like, back then it was just like fucking rancid hair in the summer. And then from then on in, I was kind of so traumatized by it that whenever I did it, I would ask if we could go to the bathtub and so I could do it, like. And I would get the water up to about 2 inches and then I would eat. I would eat the girl out under the water.

[B]

Like, lap it up.

[A]

No, my nose would be above. Yeah. I was like a hippo. So I.

[B]

How are you getting these ladies to.

[A]

We do. We didn't know any better. I just. Like, they would do it and then.

[B]

The hair can just sit nicely on top of the water like a lily.

[A]

Yeah. I mean, you're the same age as me, right? We only know from the movies. Don't know, like, you know, we just imitating the magazines and stuff like that.

[B]

There was no movie.

[A]

Girls were. Didn't know about, like, going down. Girls weren't watching porn then. Like, they didn't buy porn. They. They didn't buy it. They didn't get the magazines. They didn't know what was going on. They were kind of taking our lead on how everything went. So I was like, yeah, this is you.

[B]

Just this guy right here with the guy.

[A]

That guy right there.

[B]

The guy.

[A]

I know where. I think I was there too. Look at the rotary phone next to me. That's a rotary phone, dog. It's a rotary phone.

[B]

Where are you here?

[A]

I think I was at my girlfriend at the time's country house. And look at the robe, North Carolina hat. Yeah, I got the g. I got the cross chain that I got at Greek camp. I remember that.

[B]

Tell me about.

[A]

We'll wrap up.

[B]

Tell me about stealing cars.

[A]

We stole my friend's mother's Peugeot.

[B]

I haven't heard that one in a long time.

[A]

So she would drive us to Brighton beach in the Peugeot and sometimes she would drive us to buy crack too. What, in the Peugeot? Yeah, for her. So me and my friend would be in the car. She'd be taking us to the beach or taking us for conditions was another big thing. You go to Flatbush, get conditions. You go get Italian ices. And she would smoke crack on occasion. So she would buy the crack. Like, she would pull up and like, through the window, she was like.

[B]

She wouldn't get out.

[A]

No, it comes over. It was in it. It was like a drive through.

[B]

And you would see the.

[A]

We didn't exchange the whole thing.

[B]

When did realize that was ha. What was actually happening? How much older were you? Wait, that lady.

[A]

We knew what crack was. We knew she smoked crack. She. She. She had a 70s spaghetti rug in the den. And remember those old spaghetti 70s rugs? And we would find the crack vials, like in. I guess because the. The. The rug comes up so much, they would be hidden in there. So I guess she would lose them and we would find them in the room.

[B]

No.

[A]

Yeah. And it's just what it was.

[B]

So where'd you steal her car for?

[A]

Where you stole her car?

[B]

How old are you guys?

[A]

We were d. Doing. I mean, God, we must have been 12, 13, driving the car crazy. Then we stole my dad's car.

[B]

Wait, where are you going? Why you. Just a joy ride.

[A]

No, where did we go? We could have went to Nelly Bly, which was. I. Nelly Bly is called something else now. Which was like a. An amusement park in Brooklyn. We could have. What? We used to go to the. We used to go to the. The mall. The. What was it called? The Kings County Mall? Is that what it's called? We didn't have malls around us. It was like one mall in all Brooklyn. The rest is just street stores and. Or we could have took in. I don't remember. We could have taken it just down to the courts and played basketball. We'd go play basketball in different neighborhoods.

[B]

You say you took your dad's One.

[A]

Time we took my dad's Audi 5000. What? How old are you? Same age, dude, it's like. Yeah, 12, 13. Took the keys. Yeah. Is that the Kings County Mall? Yeah, it's still there.

[B]

And where are you going then? Just riding around?

[A]

Yeah, we were riding around. Just joy.

[B]

Did you get back without getting caught?

[A]

We got caught both times. It's one of those things like, how do you not get caught? Yeah, like, I don't think we thought of that. The parents?

[B]

No, the parents.

[A]

Cops. We did not crash it or anything. I didn't drive. My friend drove.

[B]

Both of them drove all right, too.

[A]

He drove decently, I guess. I mean, it's so stupid. When you think about what we used to do, I used to run on the top of rooftops, on the edge run. And then when you got to edge, jump in. So you jump towards the roof. They were all like. So the roof was down, and then the edge would be up. So you'd run on the top of the roof, and then you could jump and slide down onto the roof. And it's the stupidest thing. I remember one. Because you look at your feet, and I remember one time I got way too close. Dude, I could have just ran off the roof. I mean, we did stupid things. I mean, it was just the stupid. We used to ride in between the train cars, the subway cars.

[B]

Okay, what do you mean, in between them?

[A]

Like, so you walk through. You can walk through the train cars, and then in between. You're just outside the train car. And we would ride out there. We would just ride in there.

[B]

Just out there.

[A]

Yeah, we just. It's just stupid. That's just stupid. Dangerous. But we would go. Here's a fun story, maybe to end it. We would go to different neighborhoods and play basketball. Like, we all played basketball, right? We're all. That's what we did mostly. Mostly as a kid, we'd go to the courts, play basketball. The courts were not great. It was just, you know, there were kids there. There were people there that just weren't great people. But we would go, and you'd get a little respect if you played basketball. But we would go to different neighborhoods and start games with kids. We went. This was. This was in. It's so different now, too. This is across from Ben's Pizza. We went to the city and we played at this court that is in soho now. I believe that's soho. When I was a kid, soho, which is one of the best neighborhoods, was like nothing. It was just warehouses and artists, and it was desolate. Same thing with Tribeca and Dumbo. These neighborhoods now that are like, the most expensive real estate in America. When I was a kid, it was like Red Hook. I mean, dude, the mob used to just throw bodies in the canal there. But so we went to this court there and we played basketball. And at that time, the Italian kids just used to. To hang out outside. Italians love hanging out outside. They sit on lawn chairs outside. The Gargano family down the block, for me, they would just always be outside on lawn chairs with a radio. And so we went there. There's just all these Italian guys just sitting around the court with umbrellas, radio, sitting on lawn chairs. Furniture that you bring to the court, they would just. Everyone would walk around with furniture, just sit. So we're playing this game. It's like, me and, like, five of my friends, I guess. And we would play whoever was there. And then a fight broke out on the court with one of my friends, and so he started finding this one guy. Every person who was sitting in the furniture stood up. They were all together. Like, it was like all these Italian kids were in this caged court, right? They all come in and they're just beating. We're just caught. We're, like, in a cage. Like, we. And we're just running around getting hit. Like, it's like 40 of them. There's, like, five of us just getting stomped out by. We all beat up. And like, somehow we got out of there. One of the guys knew my friend from basketball. He was, like, a big basketball star in high school at the time. At the school, Bishop Ford, where Chris. No, a lot of players went, but not Chris Malone went to his variant, but somehow it stopped. But it was just. It was one of those moments where it was just. That described an era where, like, there was just. You'd get jumped a lot. There'd be kids. We'll be together. And we just didn't know everyone. This kid was with all these guys, and they just all. And we're like, oh. We looked around. We're like, oh. And they just converged on the court, and we were just running around like it was like a chicken coop, and they were just plucking us off. Just. You were getting hit everywhere?

[B]

Everywhere.

[A]

Yeah, it was just. And then we went out across. Across the street to Ben's afterwards. We got Palermos. Palermos were the slice with the. With the bread clubs on it. So it's like a square with breadcrumbs on it, and it was great.

[B]

Dude, thank you for doing this.

[A]

Thank you for having me.

[B]

Appreciate you being here. Promote your special one more time, please.

[A]

This trip down memory lane was great.

[B]

I love it. Yeah, it's a fun show.

[A]

Yeah. Property owner on YouTube. Just go. Property owner Giannis Pappas. Watch my newest special on YouTube.

[B]

Thank you, brother.

[A]

It's always a blast hanging out with you.

[B]

Same, brother. Thank you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

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