#691 - Johnny Hamcheck

I want to let you guys know that my new special, I'm Doing Fine, is out now on Netflix. And thank you all for the support. He's got those six-inch chains and those seven-and-a-half-foot egg rolls. He's a prankster. He's a content creator. This guy's one of a kind. And he's revealing himself for the first time today. I'm fortunate to sit down with Johnny Hamchek. Am I acting all right? That's a good question. Dude, you've got to tell me, man. This is an I Don't Do podcast. This is an I Don't Do podcast, bro, but I'm comfortable. Dude, one thing I would ask my friends all the time would be, dude, do I seem all right? I never had any idea if I seem all right or not. My best friend, Scott, I remember one time telling him, dude, tell me who I am. Most of my life has just been— Oh, 100%. I don't know who I am. I look at myself from an outside body all the time and wonder, what the hell? Who do you think you are? Who are you? It's a good question. I don't think any of us know. I mean— Maybe that's true. Dude, life is weird, bro. Like, everyone's is weird, though, you know? We're all down here trying to figure it out. It's a messed up game, you know? And some of us are kind of being a little bit perverts, too. There's a lot of pecker checkers out there, bro. I mean, I told you— Dude, who runs this shit? Dude, I don't know, but— It's something else, man. Johnny Hamchek, one of the— Premier pranksters, I would say, right now, probably. Maybe in the world, dude. That's—I feel like— You know, you came on my radar just like probably a lot of people just like through social media, just seeing your pranks. And today's the first day that you're kind of showing yourself. This is it. This is the reveal that I've been holding off on doing for five years, you know? It's been a game of cat and mouse with the internet. And to be honest, it feels great. It just feels good to— Let them have it. This is it. This is it. And I'm, you know— It feels good. It's like I had something in my stomach I needed to throw up for so long, man. And I can't explain how happy I am about doing this reveal, actually. And saying what's up to all the people and thanking them for all the love. And it's been a fun journey, but it's time to move on to the next stage of my life, you know? And I don't know what that's going to be, but I'm done hiding from the public, you know? It's caused so much stress, dude. Does it really? Yeah. Just acting funny about, oh, you can't take a picture. You can't send it to your friends. And it was only for the fans. I only did it for the fans because they love— A lot of them are going to be upset, you know? That you're revealing yourself. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because you have millions and millions of views on your pranks, but you've never shown who you are. No. In the very early days, in my first TikToks, I did. I had TikToks with myself. I did this alibi prank, and I'd go to Walmart and say, hey, will you do a video with me? And I showed myself early on. And then when I saw that the people on the internet were saying, I love that he doesn't show himself. And then I jumped on board and just made it POV with never showing myself. And it's been like a really—it's been a fun game. It's been, I mean, fun for them, because everybody comes up with their own image of what they think I look like, you know? Let me ask you. Did you know what I look like? Didn't have a clue. No way. Yeah, didn't have a clue, man. And I was curious. And it is this thing. It's like, yeah, it adds to a level of mystery you don't even know. As the viewer, you just don't even think about it. You're like, oh, this is this voice. But, yeah, I don't know who it is. And I think I'm probably an average viewer. I don't go back and—you know, I didn't go back and research the first one if there was a reveal. I just always assumed that there wasn't. What's some of the stress that we don't see about hiding your identity? The fans are always zooming in on reflections, you know? When I shoot videos when somebody has glasses on, and they think I don't know, but I know exactly what I'm giving them. I like to give them little glimpses, you know? And it's—like I said, it's gotten annoying for me to try to keep playing that game. But I did it for the fans' sake. I didn't really do it for myself. I was tired of this game years ago. You know, but— Not of the pranking, but of the hiding. The lore—the hiding. Yeah, the hiding. I mean, pranking—I mean, I'm a little burnt out on the pranking. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I'm 50 years old. You can't street prank and just—it's like, come on, man. It's time to do something different, you know? And I don't care what it is. But, anyway, I'm talking too much. No, well, we want to hear you talk. And I do want to show people at home, and just so some people may be hearing your voice and they may not be exactly familiar. But, Trevon, let's play one of—just play 20 seconds of Johnny Hamshag. Hey, sorry I'm late, buddy. What? I said sorry I'm late. Oh, you're good. Yeah, did they tell you I was coming? Who are you? I'm Johnny, project manager. I know. Okay, yeah, Balboni told me to bring those chains to you guys. What the hell do you do here? I flag. I know, you're doing a good job, too. Well, thank you. Yeah, they told me about you. I'm off today, but did my girl bring the Chick-fil-A, boy? The Chick-fil-A? No, I don't believe so. She was supposed to bring some chicken sandwiches for everybody this morning for breakfast. Okay. Yeah. Dude, you must be—so many of yours that I watched are ones you put up on construction sites. You must be known at every construction site now. Yes. Yes, just in North Carolina the other day, a young kid jumped out of the Bobcat. I saw his eyes instantly. I see them before they see me. They'd have a voice. They'd have a voice recognition. It's the craziest thing. It's like a blind guy that has super senses with his ears. Because they don't know what I look like, they match the voice up. I'll be walking in Vegas. I'll be in Beverly Hills. I can't—if I talk and people walk by me, they'll start— Getting curious. Yeah, and when I tell them, no, I'm not Johnny, they're like, yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. That's a funny thing, man. I found that interesting. I found that interesting about humans. Is it hard to find, like, a construction site to work these days? Or, like, are you moving area to area? What do you—what's that like? No, it's all about the individual. I'll pick out a guy that looks like he might not watch social media. Just—it's all about the goofy characters for me. Everything is about what they give me. It's like—it's not me most of the time, obviously. It's just these people. But when I leave Ohio, I feel free because Ohio, nine times out of ten, I don't even— I walk up insecure because I know they're going to bust me. So I'm like, I'm ready for them to catch me. Those videos do really well because my fans love seeing people recognizing me. So in Columbus, it's still cool to do those, but I don't mess with even any pranks, really, and Columbus is getting old. But I can still find tons of construction sites. And I've gotten lazy over the last few years where I pull up in the car. I used to walk—you know, all I— All I got to do is get out, put a vest on, and, you know— So you used to look more the part. Yeah. In the early days, though, I walked up in shorts, no hat. Now I—dude, I pull up with the construction—the hard hat on in my car, which is the funniest thing because it's like the stupidest thing ever. But when I first started pranking, I had a very nice car. I was, you know—I had a—you know, I had a good job and— What did you have, like a Chevelle or something? Dodge Neon? Dude, I had a— I had a $100,000 Lexus when I first started doing these pranks, and it was a big black—so they bought it. And then I went broke and went kind of homeless, and then I was driving around these $500 cars. So it was really a funny transition. But did the Lexus help the pranks? Yeah, yeah, because they're like, oh, this is definitely a boss. Oh, this is Balboni. Yeah, this is definitely the boss. He runs stuff. He's, you know—and—but it still worked in a fucking G6 that I ended up— a friend gave me a G6, man, with duct tape holding up the panel. There was a bungee cord holding up the panels. But when I put that hat on, man, it was the funniest thing, pulling up. Like, somebody's going to drive around with a hard hat on in the car, you know? So originally, you would get out and walk up? Was that—did that create a different energy? Yeah, that's a whole different one. It takes more energy, basically, yeah. So you got lazy, and now you just kind of pull it up in your whip? Yeah, because the window ones, when they come to the window, it's like they're on TV. It's perfect. So those work, too. But I used to just walk, man, miles, dude. Like, if you—Columbus, Ohio, I would walk from one end of town. I mean, I was putting 20,000, 25,000 steps a day before I went to work. On your limbs. You're putting those miles on your— On my feet. Yeah, on my dogs, man. And that was when I had a job. I'd go into work at 1. I'd make six—in the early days, man, it was like six videos a day. I mean, I could make them all day long if I want. I mean, it's— But it gets old, and, you know, you got to do something different, but— I don't think it gets old for us, but it probably starts to— turned into a lot more of a job than it does like something that's entertaining for you i call it feeding the fish feeding the internet and feeling that pressure to keep giving them something and they get so upset when i don't post for a while and it's like uh yeah it's an addiction and you know you know that i have addictive tendencies and i i hate the addiction to feeding the fans these videos and then if i don't have a viral video or something man i get like i get withdrawal i get sick you know you start to feel bad about yourself even it's a it's literally a dopamine addiction like when i if i don't have a fresh killer video that's going viral then i i feel i start to get sick and after a couple weeks i get sick man and i have like this i gotta go get some i gotta go get i gotta go get a video and they don't make like a suboxone for pranksters no if they did i would take it right now i'd get on i'd get off i'd get off the pranks right away go to rehab yeah get on that methadone homie oh my gosh suboxone speaking of that i mean we'll talk about that later but that is the hardest drug to ever get off of i had to kick that in february 25 and it's the worst i mean it was harder than getting off the hard fentanyl it was harder than getting off fentanyl because yeah before you go down that road i know that uh because we've talked a little bit about addiction right we're both in so amen amen bro amen good job amen good job i'm very happy for you and anybody that's actually taking that path because the toughest knuckles in the world bro you need them in that game because it's an internal battle bro nobody's gonna do it for you you know it's the biggest war of a human's life man amen yeah yeah amen bro yeah so um let's start from the beginning in your life bro because you've had some i mean you were a used car salesman you were a used car salesman you were a used car salesman you were in a band you dealt with heroin addiction you've been to prison dude you've got me not prison but the county jail for like six months so i've been to jail many times but i have never gotten a number is what they say oh shit no way yeah oh but they want they said prison was way better than the county jail i was in it's called the workhouse in columbus ohio it's the worst place that it's the worst you didn't like it does it even have stars on like google review or whatever would you like it 50 gangbangers and not just just every type of criminal and there's one bathroom behind the brick wall you know that everyone gets to use and everyone's fighting every day i mean i fought a couple times they're picking up people on mattresses while they're sleeping and launching them across the room to the weaker people it was so but i found i mean dude you find god when you're in those places like i was part of this bible study and we got up every morning and read the bible and like but man when you don't know when you're getting out and you if you've never had your freedom taken away you need to to appreciate life not i always say that sometimes i get so comfortable out here i'm like man i need to go lock myself up just to remember that feeling of getting out man wow of just the gratitude of being free bro yeah a freeish freedom is something that we all take for granted man it's jeez do you ever did you ever celebrate a like a holiday in prison sorry in jail no but i just celebrated my birth last year down in florida i was in long-term treatment i was down there for two months and um i celebrated my 49th birthday down there but when the whole rehab facility found out who i was it really helped man i had all these fans in rehab with me and they were just going crazy and it was like i was happy to have to make it fun for them you know if somebody's ham checking into rehab dude in long-term treatment where we're all just trying to get by for long two months you know but yeah that was that was the last time i was on hard drugs too i got clean in february 25 thank god but now what was your question about jail i forget oh holidays in jail i mean i'm no but my my uh ex-wife was um had our you know i was in there and she had a little baby you know she had my son and and it was stressful dude that's a unique way to refer to your son as she had a little baby but i do my son he's the man dude he's awesome um but that's awesome dude um how did you get into pranking you're from ohio yeah so i was always a class i mean i always remember that first time that everyone was quiet in the library and i farted you know like you just never forget the humor and and the laughter that comes with that so i remember getting addicted to being the class clown in seventh grade me and my friends would prank these chinese restaurants you know oh my my buddy's parents were doctors so we'd go in his basement they had the fancy phones in the 80s the big speak the ones you could use speakerphone it was i mean so we would prank this chinese restaurant all the time man and and what would y'all do well i would call and ask them if their fortune cookies were true you know and we would order all these egg rolls just so so many egg rolls but i i said are your fortune cookies true because this one says i'm gonna eat a big turd and blow up like that's not even funny but my buddy reminded me of that the other day but we called him every day and then so the owner got so mad what did he get mad about well apparently we they were getting all these orders ready and we never we were little kids we never came and picked them up oh so you guys would make orders for yeah for eddie yeah we ordered a seven and a half inch egg rolls for eddie and it was not cool because they're working their butts off and we're just little kids laughing on the phone and but the craziest stuff happened this this guy that ran the restaurant i'll never forget one time he said you come down to my restaurant i'll blow your fucking head off yeah i'll never forget one time he said you come down to my restaurant i'll blow your and uh he said that to me and three of my friends and then he said you'll get yours in the mail and uh we got subpoenaed in the mail in seven in seventh grade you got subpoenaed by the chinese in seventh grade the restaurant yeah yeah so we had to go to court i went me and two friends and his parents took us to court and we sat at a big table and got lectured and they told us how many thousands of hours we cost them in business and my buddy's dad's car got towed while we were in there too he must have been pissed it was they were so pissed it is so funny i'll never forget that shit what other stuff would y'all say to him over the phone because it just took i mean all i remember is making them mad ordering egg rolls you know i i don't remember really they're good i don't see but i guess and you're not going to pick them up so you have no plan to pick up the i'm practicing my impression of a chinese person or something bobby's chinese dude he doesn't give a fuck even even if you ask him he fucking denies it he's a pussy that's crazy he's a good guy but he's also a fucking he's one of those people that like denies where he's from or whatever you know he he where is he from china is he okay yeah but he denies it he's just like he's kind of like he's like kind of like um he's like dj khaled or whatever because he's from palestine he's just doesn't talk about it oh okay but bobby just has something against his own culture or whatever bring up a picture of him he used to dance too back in his home country or whatever oh yeah i've seen him he's he's a funny guy is he out in la i don't know where he lives he probably denies wherever he lives i don't think he won't even tell you where he fucking lives it's just it's just the kind of guy he is but he's dealt with a lot of shit that's the shit that makes me glad i don't have hair sometimes i feel like the people with hair have to figure out how to look cool you know like and uh i'm like you know i have i don't have to worry about that shit oh yeah he looks like he's been sniffing fireworks right there but he's good he's definitely a good guy so you but you so you guys would call over there and you remember any of the other like things you would say that the uh fortune said no i don't actually my buddy just reminded me of that he it stuck in his memory for fifth for that year and i'm like oh my god that long and he just told me my fortune says i if that i'm gonna eat a giant turd and blow up you know and he just thought that was so funny i don't i don't really think it's that funny but he'll never forget me saying that but i just remember the guy saying i'll blow your effing head off you know like that that's crazy to say that on the phone but back then you can trace calls you know but not from their country dude they've been in so many wars and stuff i and a lot of their family have been victims of stuff like that so i think fuck it yeah i'm gonna blow his head off they look at a lot of people especially bro i think you have to think that chinese restaurants look at anybody who calls as the enemy dude yeah because they must get 80 percent of their calls must be people just fucking with them back then we pulled up in the yellow the phone books, man. You can call it the Yellow Pages. It's okay. I know what you're talking about. Do you? I don't think you're. old enough to remember that shit man we used to just pick names out oh i think oh i thought you meant it was like a racial book or whatever oh but yeah i see what you're saying dude oh the big ass phone books that we would do prank calls with the rotary dial and shit but i was holding a big ass vhs camera on my shoulder at a young age making we hung this banana like 20 20 stories down and i tied a tied a kite string to a banana and there was this heavyset guy tanning with all this oil on and i dangled and we had the we had the camera um and we dangled the the banana all the way down onto his belly from 20 stories oh well i mean it was up and it was in panama city it was very high up but it was impressive yeah i've lost so many of those good tapes you know god i hate losing y'all slowly moved it all the way down oh yeah yeah it was awesome oh it's beautiful yeah and it just did you touch him or just get as close as possible i think i dangled it i don't remember it landing on his belly but he was like laid out like a frog man i'll never forget that he was all greased up and he looked like a frog from up there and it was so impressive that we got it right in front of his face though you know yeah fruit facing they call that if you can do you 20 i mean that's the problem is there's not like a there's not like an olympics for the fucking awesome shit like that you know there's an olympics you can jump over something but if you can dangle a piece of fruit or produce or something 20 about 20 stories down and get it two centimeters away from a guy's mouth i probably have the world record you know without even knowing it you know i bet you have a few of them dude yeah that's that's that's true um what was it like growing up where you grew up like what was your home life like like were your parents like were you like i mean this is retarded were did you come from like was your dad a clown or whatever like or what's going on he was basically a clown i mean he so i was born in new york city because my dad was in the coast guard so i'm proud to have been born in new york and i uh lived there for three years and uh then we moved to ohio so i grew up in you know my dad's my dad's dad was my grandpa was a preacher you know at a small little bible church and it was just um but my dad was wild he played guitar he didn't drink or smoke my dad never has done any drugs or anything man it's like so strange that somebody can go through life without doing anything like that not having a drink or anything i'd take a rip off of something dude i know i mean how do you handle life like but he was um before we went to the pool every day we had to like read zigzag listen to zig ziglar audiobooks on how to be successful you know and then memorize the bible and like what was zig ziglar bring that up bring up an audiobook just a link of it on youtube if you can i'm zig ziglar and i'm in a studio sharing with you a couple of thoughts before we go to the live audience to begin with this program is literally for everyone whether you're a mechanic or a physician whether you're a college professor or a kindergarten student the information is something that you will benefit from so okay so and this is and this one's called uh developing the qualities of success so zig ziglar was like a motivational speaker yeah he it was about sales and being motivational speaker yeah you guys would listen to that yeah and memorize the bible you know we had to memorize certain books of the bible do like pull-ups push-ups um and it was just like this whole routine before we go to the pool but my dad i was kind of i was embarrassed of him when i was young i mean he would wear this he put this rubber old man mask on and drive down the road and i'm a little kid in the back seat and he's scaring people on the highway you know and um dude and my dad was actually an old man really yeah so that's the white hair in the back of this rubber mask dude oh yeah dude my dad used to give away he had like he got this deal like stock and vending machines or something but he quit like the first time he he got too much of the delivery they delivered all the chocolates and everything and the pretzels and the mints or whatever so he left all this shit in the back of his car and the windows were always cracked because they wouldn't go all the way up so the rain would get in and it got hot in there so bro but then for years we'd have to sit on top of all these boxes of fucking melted chocolate and bullshit you get out of there you have chocolate and pretzels stuck to you are you serious oh bro it was horrible they had mushrooms growing out of the bottom of his car and shit like it was just it was a fucking produce section of a vehicle chocolate salad bro it was his his whole car was a piece of shit and so every time we'd get out we'd like not only would be so ashamed of ourselves but we would just be covered in like nougat and fucking bullshit and shame but go on no dude that's funny my dad ended up doing the gumball machines eventually in life did he yeah he was taking gumball machines to but i but did y'all have a sack of gum in the fridge because my my old roommate did gum and he had uh at night he'd have to come home and put a sack of like bro he had like 1100 gumballs in a in a garbage bag he'd have to keep them in the fridge at night but bro we would be getting high and shit and we'd go in there and we would eat like bro oh we need 11 gums bro and he bro the taste goes away in three seconds of those he would lose his mind bro he'd have to fucking go for a run he couldn't even handle it and we fucking we would lie about it and our faces would be all like blue and pink on the edges bro like we had a damn gender reveal going on in our throat and we'd be like oh my god we're in our throat bro we just been smacking on his fucking uh on his product bro oh my gosh that's hilarious anyway go on bro no no but i you know looking back i was like why you know my dad played guitar on the porch you know and sang his songs to everybody in the neighborhood and he wrote them yeah yeah he's he was he's a great um musician he he he plays all these like awesome folk songs that are his you know and uh and he was a good athlete he'd be running his miles and he'd be when i was getting on the bus you know but like when you when you're younger you're kind of embarrassed everything your parents do you know what i mean but looking back and he you know he taught us to he he'd build stilts you know and we were walking around the neighborhood on like these giant stilts you know and riding unicycles just doing all the weird shit what do you mean riding you know like like was he trying to like be seen by people or was he trying actually to do unique stuff yeah i think it was just that he'd like to do unique stuff you know he'd build a boat in the backyard you know and we'd sleep out on the a flat boat out on the water and stuff and like i mean it was cool i i think it's cool now but when i was younger i was embarrassed oh dude getting embarrassed to your parents bro my mom got a sheepskin jacket or whatever from new jersey and she was all excited about it she saved up for like two years for it bro i don't even know how she got a hold of it she got like a good deal on it or whatever but it had real uh you know what like the curly stuff that comes off of a sheep or whatever what is that called that real wiry shit wool yeah yeah yeah yeah that was it bro she had that real wool and she had it bro and she had this bitch bro she looked like a she looked like a care bear that somebody like had never blow dried or whatever that had been it was insane dude and she would wear it everywhere and she'd like have on my new jersey jacket and dude we couldn't even like that but it was all see the wool around the neck and the whole thing the whole thing the whole thing was the wool when was this i don't even know i quit keeping track of time once i hated the world you feel me yeah 100 good idea bro it was so embarrassing dude and i would like uh oh i was always so embarrassed when i was a kid you know we held hands and prayed at every restaurant in public and i was you know i was always ashamed of that you know because the waitress always comes up when you're praying yeah the waitress i'm sure comes up and goes hey aren't you the guy who said that you're gonna eat a huge turd and blow your head off i'm sure we didn't always eat at chinese restaurants my parents took us to pizza hut sometimes bro dude pizza hut had pac-man and shit and the mini balls how great was it pizza was the best i still miss some pizza hut but they don't it doesn't taste like it used to it's not the same i think like cbs or paramount owns it now somebody does but i remember they made it big time dude they would have uh funeral parties at the one in our town bro really yeah damn and so like we'd be over there but can you guys quiet down we're doing like a funeral service and we're like bro this is pizza do you remember the red cups oh those red cups yeah so good oh the rope that came out of them oh but it just like yeah dude i'm so sorry dude i'm so sorry dude i'm so sorry dude i just and i would sit there fuming so angry that these people had died or whatever i couldn't even remember what was going on but like that just pickled my dick yeah you know i was just something was wrong with me though but anyway it was a party place pizza that was a party yeah it was a party place dude and we had this little place called bj's pizza and they would never tell you what the bj's stood for but you knew you already know right and the middle of the pizza was always wet bro oh see that's a that's how pizza hut is now man that soggy in the middle it's you know it's flimsy and i don't like that stuff it's all man back in the day um not everybody could would just get erect you know you had to have maybe a you had to hire maybe one of those uh 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always waiting for the right time to do something like start a business the truth is the best time is now and shopify can help shopify is hands down the best place to start and grow a business it's the platform where you really own everything your store your community it's easier than ever to start a business today with shopify because you can start from anywhere anytime any place we use shopify for our merch store they've been great as we've added new products over the years and scaled up or taken products off and scaled down they take care of the logistics so we can stay focused on the creative side there's no better feeling than having something that is truly yours find out what it feels like to say that's my business at shopify.com slash theo that's shopify.com slash theo so your dad was a unique character and you guys would pray at these restaurants well yeah i mean we were raised going to church every sunday you know and uh i was just saying that you know and now i mean i'll bow my head and pray and i'm not i'm not ashamed of it it's just funny how uh you know when you're younger you know not many people at the restaurant are holding hands and praying before pizza hut you know yeah it was just that was just something um it reminds me bro my mom would make us pray we would pray for clean clothes for everybody in the world seriously yeah that's a good prayer though you know it's pretty good i pray i just wrap it up i pray for everyone going through a hard time everyone's suffering you know oh so you just do the whole you just in and out i mean no no not that quick but that's one of my main focuses during a prayer because it covers so much i'm like i pray for all the people out there that are suffering today yeah because everyone's going through something man oh for sure yeah freaking it just seems is that a little generic sometimes i'm like well yeah i mean sorry dude i'm putting you on the prayer no you're fine i don't care but i know that we're supposed to ask for i mean who knows what we're supposed to do but i mean i do isolate certain prayers although i feel like god knows what he's supposed to do you know it's like it is kind of weird bro if you know what you're supposed to do right say if you're willie wonka right and you want people to come by in the morning to your factory and knock on the door and be like don't forget to make candy today or whatever you know saying that's it is kind of crazy it's annoying when people tell you what you already know you're gonna do yeah you need to do i mean you deal with it i deal with it like if you're ironing a shirt and somebody's like hey man iron that shirt yeah you're like no shit i'm getting around to it okay i was just about to iron it you know yeah like what if god's like dude i'm already doing this i mean i love people but man they're annoying i mean i'm annoying myself but i'm just saying a lot of people are made out of shit and fucking static a lot of fucking bullshit yeah dude and then there's always some gay dude trying to fuck just trying to fucking come on your back or whatever dude we used to have a gay dude in our town and he would fucking bro he would he would jo in his hands and he would just fucking hum it off a building dude are you serious yeah that's crazy for no reason what no reason at all this true story yeah what do you mean ham check dude i was locked up in dc on a u.s marshall's warrant because anything you do in dc is uh it's a federal crime so dude but there's this one little dude we're like in a pod in the u.s marshal's office and there's like 30 of us in this these bars yeah and one dude can't stop whacking off you know and uh and everybody kick him you know and be like and then all of a sudden everything's cool and then you turn around he's he's in the back corner i mean people can't help it you know certain people i mean he obviously had some issues but yeah but i think i mean it's better than him committing a crime or a murder or what was he in for do you know probably doing that on the streets i'm guessing but i don't know i didn't talk to him man i probably i probably helped stop him from from doing that i'll tell you this bro if i'm jerking off near you kick me i'm going to bro a hundred percent you're not coming on my back bro hey bro dude one of the best things i ever heard somebody say don't come on my back and tell me it's wrong raining don't steal my boxers and help me look for it either that's what they do in jail they take your shit and then help you look for it search parties but is it a fun game or it's actually just theft no it's just a quote i always like to i always like to say that you know you steal they steal your boxers and help you look for oh dude we were on spring break bro we all were doing pills and everything and we all we had three three guys also like sharing a room whatever we all stole it and we were like oh my god i'm gonna go to jail i'm gonna go to jail i'm gonna go to jail each other's pills at the same time and then helped each other fucking look no way yeah and i was like dude no way somebody fucking stole your pills and somebody had stole mine and somebody stole uh kyle's dude and we all had each other's pills bunch of shady motherfuckers man that is messed up um how do you hide the camera whenever you're out there how do you keep it concealed or do you not actually i'm just very creative and that's a question i've never answered before just like showing myself so it's uh i um the craziest thing it's not about the camera it's i put them in a hip in some sort of weird hypnosis with the confusion and the stupidity that once i start engaging they i can i hold the phone right in their face sometimes the camera but in the early days it was the backpack i would act like i'm a college student and just like keep it right here and then i'd be in a store and i'd hold eight things and just have it and then i'd be in a store and i'd hold eight things but it was all about the the confusion and getting their eye contact and they believe me that i'm not there's no way this guy's filming me with that phone right there in my face and and dude now my phone has six cameras and it's orange you know and it's still it still works though but i i know yeah that's that's something that everybody has wanted to know i call it the ham cam you know yeah it's uh because it's not about it's not about the phone actually you know it's a weird thing i i mean is it a strategy that you use that was part of your plan when you approach people like i'm going to create this sort of confusion out of the gate or did it just kind of evolve into that yeah i just always used to mess with people and like act like i knew them that was one thing i did at a very young age back when i was 1920 on ohio state campus we would roam the streets at night you know tripping on mushrooms and just talking to the street the night people you know but god's warriors they call them oh yeah and they have the they have the funniest stories and stuff too but i uh i prefer attorneys and doctors i'd like to prank more sophisticated people now i don't i don't mess with in the early days i would i was messing with the sign holders but it was the scammer ones though i wasn't messing with the ones that really needed it i was just kind of busting busting the um the scammer the scammer sign flyers they call them i'm flying a sign i'm just out here flying a sign yeah dude the night people bro oh yeah bro there's something about being out at night dude one night we'd been eating some mushrooms or something we parked down here at the gas station just to see who was alive right and there's a dude fucked up there's one guy unconscious who would like was trying to get out of his car and had just given up right so he's just like leaned up against like asleep in his own car with the door open one foot out of it and then there's another dude he's like my car is broken can you help me i was like i don't know another about vehicles you know and he goes well there's just like some engine trouble or whatever and he's looking in the back of his car in the trunk right he's looking for the engine or whatever so i was like oh fuck nobody can help this guy right then there's another dude over on the side he's dressed like indiana jones right for some reason and he's like oh i'll help you dude this dude i see him walk over he has a fucking machete hanging off the edge of his pants like a real indiana jones guy and i was like oh these are dude they're warriors they're warriors these are the night people these are the people that god makes as side quests you know these are the after hour heroes of christ brother um the outfits on those people sometimes they have some weird alternative weapon and like usually have some glittery pink tank top on oh yeah just they're ready to pump on somebody i was out in la recently and saw some really interesting outfits on some characters oh they have guys out there they don't smoke their own cock or whatever you know they don't even care they'll fucking put a lighter to their own nuts people don't care anymore um so take me out of high school so you grew up you have this wild family you and your friends they weren't that wild it was just i just grew up in a christian family you know um but if y'all are unicycling bro yeah you're right we were the strange people in the neighborhood i could do gainers at that off the high dives and you know i mean i don't know i don't know i don't know we had a lot of very special skills you know most of my friends can't i'm still proud of that can you ride a unicycle one one wheel anyway i like to i like to throw that around still i probably can't i mean is it hard yeah it's pretty hard what's the trick to it um like just practicing every day like it's i'd still fall off like five times before i was actually taking off and getting momentum yeah and just pedaling because the guy on the unicycle it's always this like fucking just go one oh they go back and forth can you imagine the high ones like gosh like you know when they're like seven feet in the air if you fall man damn so what's what's like uh your first kind of occupation that you head into like out of college like so i went to college for a year at liberty university so i just wanted to get out of ohio and i believe it or not i saw an infomercial saying come to liberty university and i called this number and they gave me all this free money to go to school there and it's a christian college in virginia but i went there for a year i thought i was going to walk i i thought i could play football there i thought i could walk on and in football did you try no i went to one practice and saw they were like nfl sized athletes because when i heard like one double a or division two i was i was way out of my league you know so i just started partying my roommate was in a band and i i fell in love with music we started just smoking weed and like just recording anything and i've always liked to record and listen back but it started with smoking weed in college and i fell in love with you know my buddy was just packing bars and i got to watch the excitement of somebody being in a band and so i came back i i went to school for a year i was like hell no i remember i just barely did enough i it wasn't worth my time i was like c student i was just part i ended up partying more at the christian college and i was in college than i had in high school you know oh yeah i mean they they party hard at those schools and do they yeah yeah i mean we all doing lsd and coke and shit bro we're smoking crypto i for christ or whatever i put acid in my buddy i look back on what i did to my old roommate he had never tripped before dude and i think it's the most fucked up thing i've ever done is put acid in my buddy's beer and then asking later how he's feeling at the party dude that's just not cool at all now he works for the government and he's like and he won't even take my call he texts me all the time but dude he's so paranoid to talk to me and we were tight we're still tight but he just will never take my call for some reason and i think i understand oh dude yeah bro people how could i do that to somebody i got older and i was like what the fuck was i thinking man that's like kind of the ultimate prank i feel bad about it i want to make it clear that it's not okay and um you know it happened though you know i just think it's crazy that i thought it was okay at the time oh dude no no yeah well yeah a comedian did that to somebody and the guy developed like a severe like he like takes his shirt off all the time now or whatever something happened to him so it's fucking that kind of shit can something can happen to him your guy joined the fucking cia or whatever he's basically very 007 can't tell me what he does always flying in helicopters with the governor all the politicians tripping he's getting awards yeah but it helped him i think that this one this time it helped him raise raise the bar he's really kicking ass oh praise god that's how god works sometimes dude and i'll say this also they had a thing vajip and a lot of girls would put a hit lsd in their vaginas back in the day that was a big thing in our town and one girl they put it in their he's in their vagina yeah and their cooters or whatever people call them different stuff but people would do that but they call it vajip and that was a big thing bring that up vajip and see if people have that took off or not because that was a cool thing in our community uh taking lsd vaginally is often referred to or misspelled in online spaces as vajipan it's biologically possible but carries significant health risks makes sense to try shrooms up there instead it's more natural that's a good point yeah dude yeah if they made like a psilocybin based um iud or whatever yeah popping bro this girl told me recently there's groups of people that try to collect as many stds as they can really is that nuts they're called frat i mean that's how sick the world has become they're like they go home and celebrate if they add another one to their i mean it's just a sick world it's like baseball cards for your vagina or whatever um yeah so take me back in bro um you you're dosing your roommate or whatever he's in the cia what else happened well like i said i i wasn't college caliber football so i i called my buddies and they were they were working at the car lot in columbus ohio at this toyota store and they're like man we're selling cars man making three and four hundred dollars a car you know oh shit and i was like man if these guys can do it i can do that shit and i i went right back i was 19 years old and started that was a big job i mean i was making a lot of money for um and i was living on campus you know and you know making five to seven grand a month when you're 19 years old there's a lot of money i went right to the pawn shop and bought drums keyboard i bought everybody down on campus at ohio state campus because i was just living with all my buddies who were going there now and uh i remember that first check i got i went and bought it all the instruments that we needed and we started a band on ohio state campus and but i was selling cars and i was pretty good at it um right away you know so that was the first big job i had what made you uh good at being a car salesman i think it was my work ethic from football and then my addiction probably because once i started getting once i'd sell my first car and the manager's like on the calculator yep you made 400 you know how much that was to a 19 year old broke college student so i was like but work ethic because playing football was like i think it taught me a lot sports you know so nobody i grinded pretty hard on the car lot i would just you work a lot in that business but were you a good closer like what was your thing like no i god gave me this weird gift with my voice it's the no pressure i don't care if you buy but customers always wanted to buy from me because i didn't care if they bought me i didn't care if they bought me because i didn't care if they bought me but it was like i sound stone when i talk or whatever i sound laid back and they like that it does some it's something i can't teach it's just a weird god-given gift 100 you know because i always did good in sales i became a closer years later i was a manager and stuff like that so they'd send you in the freaking auto ecclesly huh oh yeah yeah the that was weird but that was that was fun it was easy it's the same thing i've been doing for a long time i've been doing for a long time i've been doing for a long time i've been doing for a long time i've been doing shit just be it talk to them ask them how they're doing where they're from and you know just how's everything else been going what were you selling trucks vans toyotas actually um yeah in the early days i was selling used cars you know at a toyota store and and but toyotas you know that was what i always liked to sell hell yeah and what was like your most successful year do you think selling them well 2016 i was i hit 40 cars a month a couple times which was and i was winning a lot of awards like top salesman in the city and uh they'd give us envelopes full of like five grand every month and shit and i'd give my wife a thousand and then keep four grand dude just i was i was bad bro that's freaking love it's called mama don't know money you know i was like babe i got second place in the city here's a thousand go ahead head and buy yourself something nice. But I had four grand to go play cart poker with, you know? And is that what you were doing with your money? Like what were you doing with your money? Yes. Did you notice your addiction start then? Yeah. I mean, I, I destroyed myself financially, like many times over with chasing the big score in poker. I mean, I played in the world series of poker. I mean, I have some success, you know, but I literally, once I got behind in life, you know, like owing the IRS a bunch of money and just building up all kinds of debt, I was going for, I was playing for millions of dollars and out in Vegas and I would put whatever I needed to into these tournaments to play. So yeah, I mean, a hundred percent addiction destroyed my marriage because I was gambling all the time. I mean, I always made it to my kids' games and stuff, but looking back, I was, I was 13 years completely sober off drugs and alcohol, but the gambling was the biggest monster, man. And, and it wasn't until recently I quit gambling and it's like the most freeing feeling ever, dude, because it controlled my life for years, bro. It was, it was bad. How did it start? Dude, these little fairs, when I was a little kid, had the wheel and the dice that rolled down and they were letting little kids, it was called the West Jefferson Ox Roast, man. I'm giving my little hometown. Um, shout out, but I'd like to file a lawsuit against them starting. I mean, they started, they had the, there was a game called big six and then chuck a luck, man. And then chuck a luck, chuck a luck. The firemen would run this charity game, but little kid, we were betting dollars and we're little, I mean, same year I pranked the Chinese restaurants, man. I was like in seventh grade when I started gambling at these little local fairs, you know, you know how the churches will have them and stuff. The churches have them a lot, especially bro. I would go over my buddy and I would drive over there. My buddy Lance, we used to drive over to, I think it was Virginia dude. And his mom, I think lived over there and I couldn't, he would go into the strip club or whatever. I wasn't old enough, but he'd come out and tell me what the tits looked like and everything. And I'd sit out in the van. And, uh, and so he'd be in there having some drinks where he had a fake ID and looking at the tits. So whatever you come out and describe to me or whatever, wake me up. Cause I wouldn't stay awake the whole time waiting like a fucking pervert or whatever. I'd fucking get a little rest or whatever. And then, uh, but we would go to these, they have these little church fairs where you could actually gamble and win money at them. That's what I'm talking about. You pull up chuck a luck. One of the, I learned to scam at a young age. Um, with that game, chuck a luck, the dice would bounce around. Okay. You had to put your money on a color. The dice had yellow, red, all the colors. But it would roll down this thing, this big dice and bounce around. And, and the guys running it, the firemen were just looking out at the people. And, and I would wait till we saw the num, we see the dice land on yellow and I'd slide the dollar on yellow. And it's all about the celebration. You know, I started, yeah, just like acting like you won and you did it. And, you know, you sell it right there that you sell the hustle. So they believed you won even if you hadn't. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't see that. You saw the dice bounce on yellow and then you slide your, you slide your hand and raise them at the same time. You slide the dollar and celebrate. Dude, but I do it. And I mean, I beat, so there's a game in Vegas that, um, it's nevermind, but it's a game. I still, I mean, I'm not proud of that, but if you can beat Vegas, it's okay. Yeah. Not that I've really beat it, but there is one game I can, I use the fake celebration method. You know, if you celebrate loud enough, they're just like, yeah, pay the man. He won. He wouldn't be celebrating if, you know, if he didn't. But so it's, so gambling even affected your, like it affected though. It started to get bad. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I was, I was like taking, I was going out to Vegas all the time. The wife was awesome. She, she would support all my bad decisions, you know, cause she was a sweet, she's amazing. And, and, uh, and this is while you were a card. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was always successful in business, you know, always made a lot of money and, uh, because of the car business, you know, but I, I always hate, I've been an artist. I hated selling. I don't like talking to people into buying stuff, you know, but it's the way that I paid the bills and for years, but yeah, I made so much that I was very bad with my money and chasing poker. I just had this dream to win a world series of poker bracelet. I like my whole life. I was like trying to, trying to win that, you know? So, but I got in debt with, you know, the IRS cause every year they take half my checks and then they still want 20 grand at the end of the year, you know? And I didn't save up 20 grand, you know? Anyway, I was, yeah, but addiction, gambling addiction is one of my worst. I'll be, I have no problem admitting it. It destroyed, it destroyed a lot of things in my life. You know, I've kind of screwed up financially over and over again, you know? And there was always gambling that got you like, put that help, put you in those tough spots. Yeah. I mean, I'd quit doing drugs and alcohol, but I would never want to let everything go. I was like, man, no way I'm letting cards go. Cause card poker is a sport. It's on ESPN. You know, it's not, it's not fucking, it's not gambling, but of course, dude, people, some guys wear cleats when they play it, dude. Dude, I did see a guy actually, he plays poker, actually. You might not know that, but he wears cleats. Yeah. He wears cleats at the table. It's true. What's the most that you ever lost, do you feel like? And the most you ever won? I won 17,000 at one tournament, second place in a tournament. The last day I gambled down in Seminole, Florida, Hard Rock, Florida. I lost like seven grand in one day, but it wasn't that. It was just, I couldn't stop myself from going back to the ATM. And I had, I had won all week, but I busted out of this big tournament that was with 300,000 was like on the line. And I had all the chips in this tournament and just got super unlucky. God had been telling me to quit gambling forever. He's like, man, I gave you skills with art, with, with comedy. You have all these other talents and you're going to chase this, this dead end road because all the top poker players go broke eventually. It's not a good, it's not a good career path, you know? Anyway. Yeah. So addiction, gambling addiction was bad. And what about at that moment that you're like, I got to get clean from this? Well, it had been going on for years. I knew that I needed to stop. And then I had, all these things happening with Johnny Hamcheck, you know, I'm like, you got millions of fans that love you and you, you're doing good at this. You don't lose. It's not luck. You know, you can go out and make videos every day. But I, um, just kept trying to score. It hit a big, hit a big lick, you know, just hit a big one and try to get a million. And cause I was always, I'm still dealing with the IRS, man. Yeah. You owe them. Oh, dude, you have no idea. I'm going to get one of those special agents, you know, that comes to your house with the briefcase. Like Will Smith was in a movie. Like I, I, I go downtown to the office and they're like, you can't, we can't help you here. And the guy comes around the cubicle looking like, did you say he owes over a hundred thousand? You know, like, like, Oh, like the big, like he's like, like, yeah, he was snooping in. He's like, you can't do anything for him. You know that. Right. And, and, and I'm like, man, cause I'm trying to make things right. You know, I'm like, look, I'm here trying to settle this shit, you know, bro. It was just, I didn't pay, I didn't pay attention to IRS for seven years one time because I was so angry that they take half my check and then want 20 more at the end of the year. I'm like, man, they can come to the house and get it. Yeah. Come pull up. And they eventually did, you know, they eventually get it. Oh, it's the biggest scam, dude. It is. It's the biggest fucking scam. And then the money's not even used here in our country, dude. Yeah. What do they do with it? I mean, not fixing freeways. We know, dude, but we can't really talk about it. They're buying missiles for childcare centers, dude. It just, you know, they're busy. You got to get missiles at childcare centers. Oh, our government is so busy buying missiles for childcare centers. This episode is sponsored by better help. If you've thought about buying therapy with our long-term partner, better help insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. If you didn't know, it was world mental health day earlier this month, but stress doesn't care. It's not going to take that day off. You got to take an active approach. Sometimes therapy isn't just for the place to talk through smaller things. The work situation, taking up too much mental real estate, a relationship dynamic you can't quite name, or maybe just feeling like something is off. If you've been waiting to start therapy, BetterHelp works with more than 125 health plan networks, and eligible members have an average copay of just $23 per session with insurance. Don't have insurance or live outside the U.S.? You can still get 10% off your first month. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Theo to explore your payment options. That's BetterHelp.com slash Theo. Sports betting has become impossible to ignore this season. It's in every app, every broadcast, every group chat. I mean, you may have even been there yourself. But at some point, you start doing the math on what all these small bets actually add up to. And you're going to find out what's going on. felt exciting well like tell me about that I hated arguing with people that I'm not I'm I'm the farthest thing from racist you know so I was I wanted to argue with them but the whole they didn't know me yet the internet didn't know me they didn't know who I was they just saw this video where I'm telling some customers to speak English you know because they were whispering in their language right in front of me and I'm the car seat of them sitting right in front of them and so I mean I shouldn't have said it or whatever well I don't know I mean it's some of it could be a level like I want to don't if you feel like you're being excluded or something you know and and I don't think it even matters really but it wasn't positive but it still felt exciting um I guess I just saw the that platform I was I don't know you're right I don't know if it I don't know like I'm just curious as to like well it was still funny to the two people that weren't offended oh you know it was a funny video and people still think it's it's hilarious but another one I in Vegas I walk up on these guys cutting bike locks off stealing and my whole idea with Hamcheck was he's this idiot that just goes up to people in weird situations and I was like hey guys and they're like they're like cutting this bike lock off two dudes stealing bikes in Vegas I'm like hey guys what are you up to and they're like get that motherfucking camera out of my face bitch and so that video went viral for all the wrong reasons also because I walked up on some thieves stealing a bike and it was so it didn't I didn't get to use my humor till the juice for milk video the one that most people know it's the home depot one where that um it's literally still my number one video my favorite video it's still my favorite it's your favorite one yeah and it's because I finally got to use my humor in something that wasn't hateful online got it let's see it we've been trying to get a hold of you but the machine down at the office is broken right now wrong guy or Justin yeah yeah hey dude I wonder what happened to you man bro it's been rough man I ain't seen you forever yeah um and you don't know this guy excuse us sir the uh the drywall deal in Newark dude yeah you still need that done or well you know what I didn't know what happened man I figured Brian would contact me Brian's always got my number well dude that guy kept fucking with me oh and I got a hand I had to put him I had to put him out so yeah I got a big lawsuit going on right now oh was that your property I hit him with a hammer you know I got I got pissed off no yeah I hit him upside the head with a hammer he was out for three and a half hours man oh but he deserved it you know yeah he just on you fucking riding and he kept riding me dude I wasn't gonna take it crazy dude this guy's a legend I'm a little worried about what's gonna happen you ever done time I did a little bit of time I did too yeah yeah I did it before I'm not looking forward to going back this yeah the fucking food sucks you know yeah but why haven't you been to the yeah the workhouse that's it oh dude yeah me too yeah gladiator tanks you know juice for milk yeah dude but you should have seen it man sorry it was one of them oh because you trade shit in there yeah that's where that whole juice for milk came from and we both were familiar with the workhouse in Columbus Ohio so it's a horrible place to be it was what I was telling you about earlier yeah but everyone's trading trays and you know and I lost a lot of shit and I lost a lot of poker it was spades I lost like in jail yeah I was gambling in jail I was losing my tray every day I wouldn't eat for two days sometimes because I lost to these guys that were probably cheating yeah you know yeah but that guy is a legend dude and later I say he said man I've been saying that all for six months and I want to hit somebody in the head with a hammer you know and that guy was so great and as he walked away that night I'll never forget I was like man get that guy's contact you know and I've never been able to find him again you know wow like I see a lot of these people many times after but that was my favorite prank because it was funny it wasn't negative you know yeah yeah it's still one of my top favorites do some of them get kind of uncomfortable like have you been in some uncomfortable situations oh yeah yeah I uh one time I was surrounded by 20 gang members in Columbus Ohio and they made me they wanted to kill me one dude kept coming up behind me with a knife and my buddy was like yelling for me to watch out and I kept turning around at the last second so I apparently videotaped this gang gangster that was out on parole and he couldn't be on camera so these girls were like hey you can't record us and I was I smarted off to them and then I was like boom it was 10 girls and 10 dudes the girls were they were like they looked like ninja turtles man they had white tank tops on and they were ready to kill me and um jabberwockies or something huh something like that yeah man they were ready to kill me and I got lucky and got out of that situation that was the first time I learned about double deleting on my phone I didn't know that you had to delete it twice to make it go away they made you do it yeah right in front of them and one dude kept kept me from getting killed by the others it was uh that was an intense situation my two buddies that were with me we can all fight we love fighting but 20 of them and and three times the dude came up behind me trying to stab me bro and I just turned around at the last minute and my buddies were tripping on acid dude they they could not I could not believe that they were going through this tripping why did they want to do acid if y'all were getting attacked or whatever we met up that night they didn't take it as soon as they started getting attacked oh they didn't know no they were tripping already and then we were walking down we were walking down the street and I just made this video and caught these people so I wasn't tripping but they were and I could not believe it that they went through that while tripping because we all we we were all able to handle ourselves but it was a bad situation but I'll never forget turning around and almost seeing myself get stabbed like three times that wasn't even a prank I was just making a street video which I do sometimes I'll just record like that you know just visuals and I'll throw music to it but yeah um and there's a lot of pranks I'll catch couples cheating and they'll tell me in my dms to please take it down you know and it's like yeah there's there's a lot of interesting things over the years you know what's another uh of your favorite stories from pranking um favorite stories it's probably I lived in this high rise building downtown Columbus when I got ended up getting divorced in 2023 and that was kind of where Johnny Hamcheck um became really popular it was like late 22 23 but I had this neighbor who's worked at the prosecutor's office he was an attorney or something and I was I went live on TikTok that night and it was like one in the morning and I was playing my own music and he comes over and he pounds on the door and I was like I think I hear something I was like live in front of all the people and I you were in a disguise no no no no I don't when I do live I just show POV still you know at that time but it was my neighbor and he became he comes over he's like I can't sleep I can't sleep and I was like I was like what do you mean he's like the base the base is pounding through the walls you know and uh I was like it's not me and he's like it's like 1 30 in the morning it had to be me um Kevin oh there he is so I took him a grapefruit to make peace and the smile that he has when I he says I'll buy you these headphones and I was like I was like would you because there's a pair at Radio Shack I've really been wanting and in Radio Shack doesn't even exist but he's like how much are they and I was like $500 you you want to play that let's just play it yeah yes look if you'd like for the tv if you need headphones for it I'll buy it how much are you I don't want you to have to do that but there's a really I mean there's a really nice pair at the Radio Shack that I've been trying to get I think it's like 500 bucks the Radio Shack brand I brought this as a piece off you know Kevin I just don't want to have any trouble man you guys are really nice and I know but we're just I realize your schedule's gonna be different during the summer I know that but it's just been it's just been brutal last three months and what type of music are you playing I I make beats and I do I've been doing music for a long time I've been doing music for a long time I've been doing I mean I was in a rock band for years and then but I got into making beats in 2006 and were you using two at the time um you know it depends my life has been in and out of rehab like forever because a lot of times people that are making beats are using yeah no but my best stuff came when I was fresh out of rehab man I had all this energy and yeah so oh that rehab fire bro dude I'm - I like it. I mean, so grateful. - Yeah, sometimes you'll go to, do 30 days in rehab just to get that seven hours of feeling like you can make anything happen. You do. Like, it's a shame, but you feel it. It's called a pink cloud is what they call it, and it's real because this past time, when I just quit smoking weed and drinking a few months ago, almost three months, and, I mean, I was on a pink cloud for a while, and then, like, life just hits you, and, like, every day is not as glorious as it was. Somebody spray paints f*** it or whatever on your Ford Taurus, and then s*** starts getting shaky again. Yeah, man. Story of my life. You still drive that Taurus? It got repossessed. Damn. Not by the police, but I had a neighbor that was, like, a seancer or whatever, but she put, like, a spell on her, a f***ing spell on it, and, dude, it worked, bro. She put a spell on that b***h, dude, or a hex or whatever it's called, like an unpositive spell, and. And, bro, that b***h shut down, bro, and it would shut down. I think she probably had, like, a replica of it at home, and she would put a pin in it or whatever. Like, she had one of those, uh, what's it called? Voodoo dolls. Like a voodoo car doll. Yeah. That's a great idea. She had a voodoo car, dude, and every time she'd put a pin in that b***h, it would shut down, bro. Dude, that reminds me of my dad, bro, when we were kids. The hood on his car weighed, I think, almost 17,000 million pounds, right? So we'd open that thing up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He would just get in there, and the engine would be, everything would be spinning. He had, like, fan belts hooked to the everything, the radio, everything, dude. And, uh, he would get under there and just spray WD-40 under the whole thing like this, bro, to spray and everything. Really? To keep it going, bro. Dude. God. Did you, uh, did you guys have nice cars when you were young? No. No. No, no, no. My mom had a Dodge Neon. I'd go sleep in it at night. It was so nice. Pull it up. It was purple. It was purple, semi-purple. Dodge Neon? Yeah. Remember them? Oh, hell yeah. They were nice. I sold tons of those, man. Yeah. Pull that bottom left one right there. Oh, my gosh. Mom got that bitch. I'd go sit in and put the seat down, and I'd sleep in that bitch at night. It was nicer than being in our house. Are you serious? In our apartment, yeah. Damn. That bitch was so nice, and it had, like, multicolored fabric on the seats or whatever. It was nice. Yeah. I remember those. I mean, I sold cars since 94, 95, so I haven't heard the Neon. I haven't. I haven't heard the Dodge Neon forever, man. They got discontinued. I think they were flammable. I don't know if that's true, but they were pretty semi-flammable. They were catching on fire for a while. Yeah. And people were like, that's for God or whatever. And I was like, I don't think that has nothing to do with God or whatever. God's lighting them up. Yeah. God's just, yeah. He should burn a lot of other cars, too. My dad brought home an Eagle Premier, man. Really? And he bought it without my mom, and I know how that is. When a man goes and buys a car without the wife, that's. Crazy story is I broke the antenna off right that night, man. What were you doing? He was so pissed. I was just bling, you know, and it was one of those. He beat my ass after that. I'll never forget, but it had power windows. I'll never forget the first car with power windows. You know, we thought we were doing something, man. Oh, my dream in life was to have a sunroof. Uh-huh. Yeah, it's so funny, dude. Thousands on the stupidest things, like minivans with sunroofs. Like, people are just. You're so cool. You're so cool driving down the road with the $5,000 extra. What's the biggest racket in auto sales? What's, like, one of the biggest rackets? Oh, man. It's the warranties on the back in the finance office, 100%. You don't need them on a lot of cars, and then a lot of them that they sell, I mean, they don't really cover it when something happens. So, it's a big thing in the car business. That's where you make all your money at, though, in the back. On the warranty? Yeah, on the warranty, yeah. And what about that rubberized, and they used to rubberize the bottom or whatever? Yeah, the clear. What was it called? A clear coat. Yeah, they had a Z-bar and shit, right? They put what? Yeah, they called it Z-bar or under. Yeah, undercoating. I don't know. That was. I think that was more in the 80s and shit, to be honest. I think they started putting that shit on everything. A clear coat. Yeah. I used to have a fucking cousin in that bitch for $30, bro. I remember that. They light the hood on fire and shit nowadays, man. I used to do that. The Asians, bro, would do that when I was in college. They'd light the hood on fire and drive real fast. Really? Yeah. No way. Yeah, it was like a. That sounds awesome, especially if you're tripping. It was like a crispy rice rocket or whatever it was called. Really? Yeah, pretty cool. Pretty cool shit. Dude, that reminds me of when I was in D.C. I was. You ever seen the show The Wire? Oh, yeah. That Baltimore show or whatever? Yeah, yeah. It was about the dope game in Maryland, I think. And I was. I was doing good in Washington, D.C. for a while. And then when I relapsed, man, I was going into the most dangerous ghettos in the country. This is back when D.C. It was 2002, but I have a dope dealer in my car, and here comes this cop cruising slow. And the dope dealer would be like, put your seat back. So we both put our seats back. We both put our seats all the way back. Like, there's no seats in the car. Just close our eyes while the cop went real slow. So he's just looking at a car like, no seats in that one. Everything looks normal here. And it worked, but they were used to it. They're like, put your seat back. So both seats are all the way back. You don't see any of the headrests. Yeah, there's no headrests at all. And I just thought that was the craziest shit, man. I love that shit, dude. God. No, that was nuts because it was just like the show The Wire. I'd walk up in sandals, dude, and I'm a mark just waiting to get killed. And were you pranking or were you scoring dope? No, no. I was just trying to buy dope, man. What were you on at that time? What were you using? So I was a heroin addict, and then I was trying to find heroin, and I couldn't find heroin. And I was like, give me the next best thing. And I started smoking crack in D.C., man. Crypto? Crypto crack, yeah. It's just crypto. I started smoking crypto in D.C. Damn. And yeah, man. You did. And it was one night you were trying to buy heroin. You couldn't find it? Yeah. And you settled for some crack? Yeah. I always wanted to smoke crack, man. What is it like? Well, I could never do it without heroin. It's an explosive buzz. I hate speed buzzes, really, myself. I like to be relaxed, you know? And yoids, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's why I like the opiates, you know? That's why I like dope. But when you combine the two. When you combine the two, it's just an explosive buzz. I used to dial 911 on my phone, man. Didn't have it ready, thinking that if I start dying, I can still hit the button, you know? Like, I swear. I mean, because I used to loan, you know, in the garage, you know? I mean, my wife would go to work. I'd be off, dude. I mean, addiction took me some really low places. But we don't have to get into that. I mean, I don't care. I'm cool with talking about it all. Were you ever using heroin? And also in between times when you were filming? Like, were both things happening in your life at the same time? Like, you ever get so high you thought you were filming somebody? Like, you get fucking confused that you don't even know who's being pranked or what's going on? I was. I relapsed, and after 13 years sober, I had a surgery and ended up taking painkillers again. And this was while I was ham check, you know? This was while in 2023 and kind of the prime of ham check. And I started getting strung out again, you know? And I was out there pranking high on pills that were laced with fentanyl and shit, you know? Were you ever dozed off during a prank or whatever? I don't remember specifically, but, dude, I did doze off. I hit my head on the counter, like, so many times. That shit was so stupid. What counter? What are you talking about? So I'd have my plate up. In the cabinet. That shit was so powerful that just a grain, like, I'd buy $50 worth of that stuff. Of what, of fentanyl? Fentanyl, yeah. And it would be white powder, and I would, just the tiniest little speck would get me high for all day, you know? Because I had been clean for 13 years, you know? But you end up falling over. So I'd have the cabinet door open. And then you just, like, you start, you just fall. And I'd hit my head on the sharp part of the cabinet. And I'd wear a toboggan to work, you know, like, and pull it down. Like a snow hat? Yeah, even in the summer. Because you had fucking. Yeah, because I had a gash, dude. Because you had fentanyl head from the cabinets? And it always gave me hiccups, too. And my girlfriend, my girlfriend would always bust me out because I had hiccups. But a lot of videos. Oh, you mean fentanyl gave you hiccups? Yeah, for some reason, it gives you hiccups. And it was funny. So there's some videos where I got hiccups. I'm like, oh, man, I remember those days. But, yeah, I did a lot of pranks while high. But I'll tell you what, when I went from no drugs or alcohol to smoking weed again, because the first step for me going down the bad road was I started, I allowed myself to smoke weed again. And I was laughing at my videos. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is, now I realize, you know, all these stoners are laughing at my videos, it is kind of funny. funny to watch them high you know but i couldn't make them high because you're i'm paranoid you know i'm like they see the camera i'm like i'm killing all these pranks halfway through the prank because i was like thinking that they saw the camera and i just would hesitate i couldn't make good videos like everything went downhill when i started smoking weed and drinking again because the best stuff that ham check did was during my 13 years of sobriety like and i'm way sharper now you can think on your feet a little bit better you know yeah um yeah it's your god given abilities man to be able to those are really your best ones yeah all that all the drugs did was give you bigger like even bigger balls and i already had to just infiltrate some crazy scenarios because i was numb you know like but one time i pranked this um guy in columbus and uh he harassed my brother in north carolina like started all these death threats like um that was a crazy story because my brother called me in the morning and uh i did these pranks where i'd ask people with how long it's been or like what at what point in their life did everything go downhill and they became homeless here in columbus i've seen those yeah but i never go i never actually talk to homeless people i go after i talk to people that are obviously not homeless you know this guy he's this real short dude with um this girl who ended up being like some playboy old um only fans model and he like sets himself up for the interview and shows off his watch and he's like makes this stance and he's ready and i hit him with the homeless thing and he's like he's like me and but they got so offended that they they looked up my name and then they found my brother's name who i follow my older brother and uh they started harassing him like threatening my brother and that that that was that was when ham checking leaked into my personal life and i was like i mean it's still very touchy you know i don't like embarrassing people and i know that sometimes i put people's family on the internet and shit and i don't like embarrassing people it's not it's not all it's cracked up to be i tell you yeah that seems like the tough part did you are there any videos that were really great pranks but you decided not to put them up because it was just too much well yeah there's one in particular where i'm asking this guy my normal prank it's like in the middle of the night it's like one or two in the morning in columbus ohio and i asked people for small favors you know and i asked him to help me get some jordans down off a power line you know and he says he he says no but i'll give you a blow job you know he's like i got nothing but a mouth buddy that's what he said yeah yeah he said it he he literally the old bird feeder he offered he offered to um give me a blow job like four times in one video and oh yeah and it was a really funny video and it was going it went viral and then i got emails saying hey man take this off the internet you know i'm gonna sue you and i i know pay attention to those i get those a lot you know um but i do have a heart and i i i started looking at the guy's um social media and i i saw pictures of him and his mom and i was like man this poor lady has to know that her son's out there in the middle of the night asking people if he can blow him you know which is just a strange thing to do to ask a stranger you know yeah yeah i think it is i mean well i think some people they call it like i think in the gay culture or whatever it's they call it bird feeding or whatever it's just a strange thing to do to ask a stranger you know but because um my buddy's brother's gay and he's been gay for a pretty good amount of time i think it seems like anyway and he uh for halloween him and his buddies always paint get dressed up like bird feeders they turn themselves into like they'll get like like kind of like a wood thing put on their head with their face and it's like got a little thing where the bird can land it's like you know they make themselves bird feeder they look like bird houses because the bird always has their mouth open oh bird houses bro they look like bird houses yeah so your bird can land in there oh wow so that's how they do it so i think it's part of that culture is being out at night looking for those night birds or whatever maybe i don't know but um that's but damn dude yeah that's so the guy was offering you a couple blow jobs out there at night yeah and the video was very entertaining but i felt a little bit bad yeah and then so i would take it i would take it down and then i'd get things would get slow on the channel and i would i would say well we call it the video was called bj balboni you know yeah of course and uh things would get slow on the ham check channel and i'd be i'd be like man i need some action i need to grow these followers man i need i need a viral video so i in my head i was like release bj balboni and and every time i'd play it it would go viral and then he would email me again and say hey man i just started this new job and everyone's coming up to me saying that they saw me on the internet it is i mean people see themselves a lot on the internet yeah on tv yeah i mean because some of it's kind of exploitive do you feel like that i mean do you feel like what does that feel like i don't i look at myself like more of a journalist sometimes because i catch a lot of things happening you know um that i just happen to run into and but i do i don't i don't always like it it's not it's definitely not that easy to do because i i have a really soft heart and i don't like hurting people's feelings so i try to avoid that it's hard to to walk the line of um funny without that's why the the the construction pranks are so they're popular and they're very harmless most of the construction bosses love it and they're waiting to get pranked by ham check with the chains you know i've had a lot i've had a lot of those and with the six inch chain or the six foot chains it started with six and a half inch cables in the early days and then it evolved to chains you know and and uh yeah it's now six and a half foot chains has there been videos that you didn't put out that you're just like oh this is too something's too wrong with this or this is yeah i have i have a whole bunch of them um i was in this one night i got this hotel it was late at night and i was at the casino gambling all night so i just booked this hotel in the worst part of town i didn't mean to fifty dollar hotel or something bro so i hear this baby oh it's the biggest cockroach hotel ever man this is a video i want to play one day i'll save these videos for like certain times but for your wedding or whatever yeah at the wedding i'll probably play this one because there's a baby crying all night and i heard this baby screaming and i finally looked out the door like and the morning and it was this little black baby that looked just like buckwheat you know um and he was out locked outside of this hotel room man all night long you think he forgot his not his keys or whatever well those keys never work you know that's probably the situation dude how many times you get up to your hotel and those damn keys don't work and you got all your shit dude i get so pissed bro and this and he was just out there all night his his mom left his mom left him and i and so the video is crazy because this crackhead lady comes into my room and i'm doing all this prank on her she's telling me all about the mom that leaves her kid all the time and it was this is the saddest situation and then i ended up having to yell at the um hotel lady because she wouldn't she wouldn't call the police you know and the mom came back and i gave her a hard time you know i got it all on video but i i uh i recently got pulled over and arrested for smoking a joint in pennsylvania this was like last year i just got i'm off i'm still on probation in pennsylvania but i pranked the cops while i was doing my sobriety test yeah yeah did they know it was you no um and i've been waiting to release that footage but i know everyone's gonna get the body cam footage once they see and once i say this right now but it's still funny as hell because they're telling me to hold my foot up like three and a half i'm like can i can i hold it six and a half i was like there's officer balboni still work here and i literally got my phone back from them i got arrested but i got all this funny footage of fucking with them while i'm doing my sobriety test they're like how much weed's in the car i'm like 2.83 grams i just bought it at the dispensary i knew exactly how much i had in the car you know but it was funny that i was sneaky enough to um get all this footage of them while they were making me do all the impossible tests by the way that nobody is gonna be able to pass yeah some of it's like admit your grandfather's a or whatever and you're like what how did that become a question yeah dude we don't even know dude we don't even know for sure that it's like yeah some of this shit is crazy bro it's impossible it's like yeah name seven black guys you're brave enough to tickle or whatever and you're like how can you even do that some of the questions like impossible dude it is you know name six friends years your mom would smash if you fucking left her home for the weekend you know be like who are they roger mike yeah damien oh yeah of course um have you faced any lawsuits have you faced any actual lawsuits um fake just fake ones you know like people send um emails but i ignore them and they go away you know just like the bills you know i mean i have yeah i people i always look and consider okay so this pastor this is a funny one this pastor flips me off man it's uh it's called the jaywalking pastor i didn't know he was a pastor till his whole congregation begged me to take it off the internet he made a public apology for this video and i was like no if if that's the worst thing you get caught doing in life was flipping me off so he gets real mad i said i saw you jaywalking you just tried it three times and this bus almost hits him and he has a starbucks and his and he's on the phone and i'm like you're jaywalking man i saw you do it and he's like no he gave me the most angry um bird ever and it was it's it's it goes viral every time i post it you know the angry bird of christ or whatever basically but i just couldn't believe how that's not a big deal bro if if you if if that's the worst thing that they put on the internet of me is flipping somebody off i'm like hell yeah yeah you know angry jaywalking pastor throwback let me see it it was a good one because the congregation begged me to take it off but i don't take off ones like this sir you're jaywalking i just saw you you did it three times oh sir how dare you come over here right now i want to have a word with you buddy does he come back over no but i always like to talk to people about what they've said or done then i get on a bus and make another little clip as i said you see what happened that guy but i will follow a lady that flipped me off two hours away from me and i'm like oh my god jaywalking jaywalking jaywalking to her job and just ask her why she's so miserable like i am the crazy guy that will have a conversation about your act your craziness you know i just love to make people explain themselves you know like yeah is that what it is what is it about the pranking like what is it that you get out of it what is it that you're trying like you just said like i want people to explain themselves right like yeah i'm just i'm curious about what that is because it's it's hard sometimes to joke with people it's hard to keep a straight face it's hard to keep an energy of a prank right it's really tough i'm yeah to answer your question i just like watching humans in action like that's my biggest thing is just watching the crazy things that humans do you know so i like i like watching their reactions as far as calling people out on stuff like i'm gonna ask the lady that sat me right next to this loud table when there's 80 you know i i but i will just ask people i don't want to punish them or anything but i want to i want them to realize that it was stupid what they just did you know and i want to ask like why they did it why are you so miserable you know and somebody's cussing you out in traffic or something you know i just like to pull up this guy had a gun pointed at me okay i thought it was his phone it was a road rage situation and he was cussing me out flipping me off so i got my camera out and i started filming the early part of him cussing me out cussing me out and then i followed him he pulls into this parking lot i'm thinking i'm gonna be recorded i know the guy's gonna get his phone out so i put i put this hat on and shades and i put the six and a half foot chains around my neck and i walk up to his car and i'm recording and i'm like i'm like dude i'm like you think i said why don't you say that to me now you know i was like what what were you saying back there you know and uh i walk up closer and i think he's holding his phone but he has a gun pointed right up at the window i never touch people or invade their space but man that was a crazy situation so i just i was just calling him out he pulled into a parking lot and i just walked up to his window making a everything's making a video you know like and that's that's that's ridiculous too i'm recording too much man i gotta i gotta take a break if you're going that far where you're pushing things to the edge of like that somebody's actually pointing a gun at you yeah and you're still right there did you keep talking i said are you you're actually pointing yeah the video is pretty funny because i was like you're pointing a gun at me on this beautiful day i was like get out of the car and give me a hug buddy i was like you need a hug so i kept going although i was high for like two days realizing that i almost got shot in the face if i was an idiot that touched people i don't ever do that right i mean i'm i'm i'm not like ever gonna invade somebody touch somebody i don't ever do that but that's wild to think that like a few years ago if you just said hey will you keep pranking somebody if they pointed if they have a gun out you probably would have said no yeah and then here you are at that space i knew it would make the video better so i kept talking to him but i wasn't afraid but later on i realized that if i was dumb enough to have touched that guy or gotten closer here he is you don't know look you know you hit me three times no i didn't i knew what i was doing you got a gun you're threatening me with a gun right now i'm not threatening you with anything you're holding a gun sir you're the one that followed me i asked you if you wanted a hug and you don't need a hug you have a gun right now i don't need the hug just move on buddy you're the one that followed me i asked you if you wanted a hug and you don't need a hug you have let me give you a hug people like people are so disconnected now uh dude the world's a mess right now bro but do you think you're helping it here or do you know but he did all i did was i was behind i was just riding his bumper and the guy went crazy at the beginning saying fuck you you didn't even touch his car i didn't even touch his car your car would be a lot but it was because i was distracted looking at my phone and almost hit him and he saw it like you know you almost hit somebody over and over again dude i'm telling you man i'm gonna take a break uh from from all this stuff you know it's it's been it's been a long journey and it's exciting to uh say that i'm what's the toughest part of the country to prank in new york is tough man they've seen it all and they're not having my shit i've still gotten some videos there um the first balboni ben video was in central park um new york is tough though i get spit out pretty so it's always a challenge in places like that um la is kind of like that but i do pretty i do pretty well it's these towns in cows and horses and you know you want to find some small towns in millinore that's that's where i find the best stuff you know well you feel like people have patience here they have time yeah yeah people got time for you you know it's the thing that makes small towns great too yeah it's that people have time for you um they're chill they're laid back and they'll give everyone the time of day you're right they'll listen to some stupidity shit you know is there are there some places you cannot prank because there are laws against it well apparently have you ever heard of the one party consent two party consent yeah how stupid is the rule one party consent so one p one person in the conversation has the consent to praying a one-party consent law means that you can legally record a conversation such as a phone call or in-person talk as long as at least one person involved in the conversation gives permission if you are part of the conversation you can record it without telling the other person you gave yourself consent basically so what just so as long as so you could be doing it they don't know it's okay right yeah uh but out in california like um apparently it's a two-party state i think um so you generally must be a participant in the conversation to record it under one party rules so i couldn't record two other people having a conversation secretly secret yeah here it says secretly recording a conversation that you are not a part of is usually illegal if you're calling someone in a different state the strictest law applies if you call someone in an all-party which is two-party consent state from a one-party state you typically need permission from all parties i i will say i i'm banned from all the urology places in columbia i pranked my doctor about the ball dropping surgery and um it brings up um a good topic because i was unsure if i was able to record these real doctor's appointments but apparently you are you know um this that big wigs called me and asked me to take down these doctor's appointment videos that were um some of the funniest shit ever so these were this was my regular doctor that i went to urologist you know and um you know being on testosterone as i got older you know the doctor told me you know you've done hard drugs your whole life you know you need to be on testosterone yeah your bag's cooked or whatever well yeah and i was concerned about my balls getting smaller you know and uh so i was sitting there i was i just had the idea that i'm gonna ask them to lower my balls for me you know during my actual doctor's visit so it was my real doctor people think man you're crazy you go and set up doctor's appointments to make pranks and i was like no i just prank while i'm at my doctor so i pranked this doctor so many times the very last one this is the compilation i think is this um the very last one he said there's one that shows them all because i pranked him over and over again but at the last one he goes can you put your phone down for a second and he says are you the one that put me on tiktok but it was after and i i i got banned from a lot of uh urology clinics yeah yeah yeah but type shit once again i want to talk to him about seeing if he can get my balls to hang lower because i've been asking him for months and i want my balls to hang lower you know because i don't feel like they hang low like they used to and all my buddies balls hang like way lower than mine okay what brings you in today well i mean i've been talking to you for a while about this and i don't know what i got to do to get you to help me with it but i really want my balls to hang lower like they used to you know my you know remember there's got to be a way you can drop them down a little bit right okay okay because my buddies their balls hang a lot lower than mine and and this is an asian doctor you can give me i'm pretty sure i had never seen him till the last your balls barely let's take a look is there any way i can get my balls lowered this i heard that people are doing that now uh i don't know i've not heard that surgery um some of my buddies balls hang a lot lower than mine you know and i just want to make sure that you know we're all on the same this is my general practice people have uh larger scrotums the longer scrotums and so it allows for the ball the balls the testicles to come down further um and then some people don't have as uh low or don't have as kind of loose of a story what i got i don't know what you're talking about yeah so and everybody's different and there's no right way or wrong way hey hey hey how are you doc oh my gosh you're tired a little bit okay nice fresh blend you got there i'm still trying to get my balls lowered you know like i'm trying to get them dropped a couple inches you know like we were talking about last time okay remember yeah you said you might be able to lower them a little bit let's take a look okay maybe i could get on smooth dowel because some of my buddies balls are a little bit smoother than mine i have a lot of wrinkles let me take a look okay but remember i talked to you about the lowering my balls a little bit can you put the phone down yeah are you the one that put me on tick-tock wow what did he say was he hurt by it yeah oh yeah he said are you the one that put me on tick-tock and i denied it of course and got through the appointment but they called me up the like ceo and and i got a letter in the mail saying i can't go to any of the ohio health or whatever but the funniest part about the first one when i when i quit recording he says the first thing i want to tell you is stop looking at your buddy's balls and i was like man if i would have got that i just didn't get that but i tell the story it was the funniest ever and did you ever did you have to show them your balls actually sometimes yeah but it's part of the deal i guess i mean i show my balls to the doctor you know but i don't care and i never got an extra appointment for a video yeah i just went to my appointment natural yeah and then kept making videos at the appointment and then it's balling out dude um two and the In the United States, recording laws are divided into two-party consent states where every participant must consent to being recorded and a one-party consent state where only one participant needs to agree. In these states, you generally need the consent of every person involved in a private conversation or phone call to record it legally. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington. Those are two-party? Those are two-party. Oh, shit. I'm breaking some laws out there. Yeah. One-party consent states Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Tennessee is on there, Idaho, Hawaii, Indiana, Georgia, D.C., Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi. Wow. Ohio's got to be down there. Yep. There it is. There it is. The Dakotas and there's others, too. All the rest of them we didn't name in the two-party. Huh. I just find it funny, one party. I mean, come on. One person of the two? And it's the one recording? Yeah. Giving yourself consent. It's stupid. Yeah. How do you figure that out for yourself? Because it is kind of like, I mean, if something really hurts somebody's feelings, would you, do you feel okay leaving it up? Like, yeah, what is your, I guess, what do you feel about it? I'm just doing it Wild West style, man. I mean, I'm waiting for trouble and I know that it's coming, you know? I'm just used to, I mean. Like, what do you mean it's coming or whatever? Well, if somebody's upset. I consider, I take it into consideration, you know, like I pranked this transgender therapist in Columbus, Ohio. I did. I told her that her dogs weren't picking up the poop and she went crazy on me and yelled at me and then made all these TikTok videos about me. But she never once asked me, like, to take it down. You know, if she would have asked me to take it down, I would have. I didn't want to embarrass her or whatever. She's like, that was a very controversial video. I quit looking at the internet for a while because I had a whole group of people sending me death threats and stuff like that, you know? Is there something about the stress of it, about that, like that you like that? Like, that's what I'm wondering. It's interesting because, dude, that sounds horrifying to me. Like, somebody's like, man, I hate that you, this is messed up. Like, you're taking, I don't like the way you're making me look. You know, I'm saying, like, I don't know, even for myself, like, one time I saw somebody who made a video. I was just walking by. Like, I was walking by a place. I'd eaten at or something and somebody made a video of me just walking by, right? And they're like, oh, I just saw Theo Vaughn walk by. Looks like he's having the worst day ever, man. Hope he's okay. Right? That's what it said. And, dude, that had been, like, two hours earlier in my day. I saw that on TikTok. And I was having the best day. Yeah. And it was like, fuck, dude. But, like, people are like, man, hope he's okay. Then people are like, man, hope he's okay. Hope he's not overdosing or something. First of all, I wouldn't be walking by with both of my shoes on or whatever and a hat if I was overdosing, probably. But it was just, like, all this shit. And I'm like, what the fuck, dude? I'm having a nice day. And just because some asshole wants to fucking put me like that, it makes me, like, it didn't really bother me. It was just the inner, it was intriguing to me. Like, it made me, like, a little bit like, okay, well, people can kind of film you whenever, which I didn't really love. But it's like, I don't know. It was just like, fuck, I'm having a good day. And then I see this, and I'm like, fuck. I don't like it, Theo. I'll be honest. I mean, that's why I'm kind of, I wish I had something else to fall back on. Because, like I said, you can't just keep doing this shit. I'm lucky I've gotten away with it and survived five years of doing this. But I really feel bad for people. I want everyone to not ever be, like, I usually, people don't see what I do off the camera. I'll stop these people and tell them I was joking. I do not let somebody do it. I don't want to see somebody go away feeling like I just called them homeless because of what they wear. I just, I'm not the one that's going to show you when I give them money. You know, I hate when people post giving money away. It just makes me sick, actually. Yeah, that kind of stuff is very bizarre. This need to, like, be, I mean, I don't know. It's a need to be seen, right? But to be seen doing something positive. Like, I certainly understand the need to be seen. Because, I mean, that's what I do. I want to be seen. When I was doing those stand-up shows, I would ask the audience as soon as I went out there, okay, how many of you literally have no idea what you were coming to see tonight? And every freaking hand went up. And I'm like, you guys, all you had to do is search a little bit harder and there's a million viral videos of people exposing me. Somebody did that to me. They posted me rapping at one of my shows. I saw, I just found this two days ago. So you do stand-up? I was doing it. I was doing it. You know, I was like, but dude, these stand-up places, they want you on the stage at 7.30 and they kick my fans. out at nine and shit and i was like i wanted to hang out with everybody i was talking to every single person i didn't like i need like a three-hour venue i was having fun but then you know i wasn't i'm not a stand-up comedian but i was doing music i was showing unseen videos that nobody's gonna see on the internet and then i was doing questions and answers my fans loved it but you always get the one asshole that's gonna make negative comments and stuff but why'd you quit doing that well i or did you quit um i kind of it wasn't worth the money to be honest man and the exposure like i was like you know sometimes i'd get like 1500 or two grand and i got this crew i'm taking care of and i'm traveling all over and it was a great show with 100 200 people there and the bar's trying to give me 1500 2500 bucks and i was just like it wasn't worth it also like when people want to kill me i'm telling you where to find me you know like so i was gonna keep the lure going a little bit longer oh so you're almost on the run sometimes in a way not really i mean but in a way i don't like telling somebody where to find me when i do get death threats you know it's like i'll be here at 7 30 on stage so you bring your gun i i prank these chicago police officers and um i and they loved me the captain messaged me and thanked me for showing light on his officers and i was like he's gonna kill me i'm gonna kill him i'm gonna kill him you guys can all come to my shows for free you know i want i want them i want them in the audience you know whenever i can have some backup but dude one video you did that was one of my favorites is the like uh because some of them are like positive i mean it's all light-hearted i feel like i i guess but i mean i guess i'm not the or the ones that i've seen have all been like pretty just light-hearted kind of it's just like it feels like good fun um the one where the you brought the eggs to mcdonald's yeah i just took that off recently because she said her manager saw it but no uh dude that was one of my favorite videos dude he pulled up at uh mcdonald's tell me what yeah just tell us what happened yeah so i was at a rest stop traveling doing push-ups in the parking lot of mcdonald's i had these eggs that i had taken from my airbnb and they were getting old and it just you know it just came to me i'm gonna walk through the drive-thru line and ask her if she'll make these eggs for me that was enough for the video i didn't expect her to actually make them for me and all that yeah and that video went crazy viral she was loving all the attention i sent her i sent her a couple hundred dollars and then like just recently she's like hey this is random but my manager saw that i need you to take all the videos down and i was just like oh and i did it i took them down but you put them back up when it's time to release the egg video again it's almost like when things get slow i'll be whipping out those eggs again trust me because it's like there was no harm in that and if mcdonald's is your main goal in life because i was like hey if you get fired i'll give you a job doing something else you know but and the manager loved it i had already told her manager so some bullshit i thought it was really cool but yeah who knows what people are i mean like i thought it was really cool but yeah i thought it was really cool i thought it was super cool i pranked an addict here it is right here oh wow that's still on the internet wow is it okay to play oh yeah it says brought my own eggs to the mcd's drive-thru in florida oh my gosh i'm so sorry would you mind doing me a small favor well i was wondering if you could make me a couple of egg mcmuffins with brought my own eggs and what i mean i don't have any way to fry them i was going to use the iron but i was just going to see if you could throw them on the grill i don't even need the buns i just just need the eggs cooked yeah okay are you serious you're so sweet um i we closed in just a couple minutes i'm gonna do it really fast i thought you were just opening we close and then we close for an hour we do our deposits and we come back and opening it just if you can just make six of them scrambled and you can just throw the rest away nice tacoma you're loving that aren't you standing in line i'm a big toyota fan myself girl you better not get in trouble for this that's so nice of you i can't give you the whole hundred but okay give me 70 back please the internet killed me over that hundred dollar bill i did inside and then i gave her more later it just you can't make everybody happy yeah i didn't even have an extra like i didn't have it like that i've never gotten ahead in life because of these videos like people you're making these obviously for the irs dude so everything is going directly deposited to them oh man dude that's a that was that is probably the nicest girl right there that's the sweetest girl um it was a good one man i love that idea that it got through yeah it's funny one thing that you've done and that i like to do over the years too is i like to pick up hitchhikers right that's something that i've always really enjoyed you know just because it's a total trying to think of what it is about it like let me really think about it's there's something about like a weird thing of like fate or like just a rochambeau with the universe it's a gamble there's something about it and uh i'm trying there was one i had i picked up a guy i think i was in a maui or something i've been able to find that is that even still out there i don't even know it's out there but um oh that's awesome bro that's maui that's dope dude i used to love picking up hitchhikers in the states but they don't really let you do it anymore you can barely even meet anyone have you ever been picked up by any weirdos uh only a couple really and it wasn't like anything like baby or like you know what i mean like weird stuff like that it was more like i'm an alien this is where i'm from oh really oh cool any killers or murderers there is but i've never been picked up by one there is a release baby that's a wrap i let him go bro catch and release i don't kill bro that's awesome man i didn't know you did that i've always loved it dude i'll tell you this this is actually a good story i forgot i forgot about it i forgot about it i forgot about it i'm not i shouldn't tell you it's a good story because who the fuck knows if it is people will decide but i picked up a dude one time and he uh and i just asked him about hitching what it was like for him and who he's getting picked up by and he said well one of the craziest times he ever hitched a ride he got into a guy's car and the guy just starts flooring it he said the guy was on the run from the police right so next thing you know he's getting they're getting chased by the police for like 40 minutes you know in the interstate there's a hitchhiker no way he's running from the law with the guy yeah he's running from the law with the guy and he asked the guy he goes why'd you even pick me up he goes because i know this isn't gonna end well and i don't want to die alone that's what he told the guy whoa and they fucking ended up skirting off the interstate into a cornfield and uh and the the police got the guys or whatever but that that was and the police pull up on him like what don't get out of the fucking face like i'm a hitchhiker so the dude driving actually ran for the hitchhiker ran from the police yeah with the hitchhiker in the passenger seat that's pretty dope actually yeah you're just going gangster on it man you're going heaven alone sounds it does sound scary i know that's why it's put together the way it is because you have to do it by yourself whatever but it does sound kind of scary um what going heaven alone or dying alone oh yeah yeah so bringing somebody along like you might as well do it yeah okay yeah i see what you're saying what's one of the wildest uh hitchers you picked up bro so i had to tell the the first time i hadn't slept in seven days i was kicking i was going through withdrawal and sometimes withdrawal or use because both of those withdrawal when you're coming off of heroin or fentanyl you get really sick and you don't sleep and sometimes i'll just hit the road because being on the road is a buzz of its own it keeps me occupied if i get some coffee and just drive i can get hours out of the way that i would just be sitting at home in a room so i pick this guy up and i always say you're not if you won't kill me if i don't kill you right before they get in i always get a verbal disclaimer i get an agreement from them that they won't kill me and i won't kill them because i'm just as dangerous as they are they just don't know it you know so yeah it's like the hitchhiker's creed or whatever yeah yeah that's what i do and this guy was cool for a while his name was james and uh i took him all like several states away he did he did a dealership prank with me and everything i made him he walked into a car dealership and i did a prank with him but he ended up saying some freak stuff and i was like dude all right man ride's over bro like some sex stuff yeah yeah yeah like he was trying to sniff you out or whatever yep just trying to make a gay comment or something you know and and i had to kick him out dude and as i was leaving he was walking he was dragging that suitcase on the next exit ramp and i said you could have just not said anything weird james i mean it's like because if he gets weird yeah You got to go, bro. Yeah, it's tough. It's also tough to ride around with a guy for a few days if you're gay and not flirt a little. Yeah, I mean, yeah. That's got to be hard. I let him drive my car, and I slept for the first time in days, dude. He hadn't driven in seven years. I hadn't slept in seven days, dude. And he was, like, loving being behind the wheel. That was when I had the nice Lexus. This is a $500 Subaru I'm driving right here. Dude, that's cool, bro. God. But this is where I make him put the glasses on. It's a great adventure. It is. You get stories, and you're helping somebody, too. This guy had been walking for four days, and nobody picked him up, bro. Really? No. How's it going? All right. How you doing? Good. Tired more out. Yeah, well, before you get in, there's a couple things we need to go over. Okay. You ain't going to kill me, are you? No, sir. And I won't kill you, all right? Deal. Is that a deal? That's a deal. You promise? I promise. I'm just trying to get home. I ain't trying to. Hop in. You got to put them glasses on so I can keep an eye on you, though. No weapons? Huh? No weapons? No, sir. All right, man. I'm trusting you, bro. You're more real than the check. There ain't nothing here with my personal stuff. All right. Grab them glasses there in the door. Oh, these are nice. If you don't mind, just put them on so I can keep an eye on you. Okay. I've been out here walking for four days. Today's the fourth day I've been out here walking. It's easy to see him like that. That's crazy, dude. That's fun, dude. This is fucking. That's awesome, dude. Me and my buddy Caleb picked a hitchhiker up the other day, man. Drove her. It's just a lady carrying a bunch of stuff. We're like, dude, we cannot drive past a woman carrying all that. Oh, no. So we drove her for a little bit. You do have to analyze every hitchhiker, though. Like, you're like. She was chatty, though. Do I really feel like risking my life today or not? Yeah. Dude, I drove a guy one time to get a bunch. A bunch of gasoline or something back to the family. He didn't even say, thank you. Dude. And that still makes me mad. That's crazy. He didn't fucking say, thank you, dude. He should have gave you a Russian reach around. Dude, I was. That's the least he could do. Yeah, he could have done anything for. He could have even just said even just something like, thank you. Yeah, dude. But to answer your question, yeah, it's not always fun, like, putting people. You know, the videos, yeah, there's a lot of negativity to it, believe it or not. Even though mine are the nicest. The nicest ones you see on the internet, everyone's harassing people and making them really angry. Well, do you think it comes from, like. I'm just curious, and I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything. Do you feel like I am? I am on the spot, and I like it. It's okay. It's okay. Yeah, it's fine. Do you think that it's about, like, whoever's filming becomes the decider of what's okay? You know what I'm saying? I'm wondering what, like, the psychology of it is. And you would probably know more than anybody because you've had. Like, what is the attraction to it overall? I think, have you been able to think about any of that? The attraction of it is just capturing humans in action, whether it's bad or good. Okay. This dope fiend comes up to my car, but she was. She still looked decent, like. But I saw her coming a mile away. And by the end of the conversation, she makes up this crazy story about. Crying and everything about somebody at McDonald's. And in the end, I'm like. You sure you don't just need this money for dope? And she's like. Okay, I. And it was beautiful because. It was real. I saw that one. Okay, so you saw that. And that one bothers me. In the recent repost of it, I cut out so much stuff that would make her look worse. I just like to show that I'm from the streets and I saw that shit a mile away. Yeah. But I know that I can be recorded, too, in those moments. I'm prepared for the worst because of what I do. Like, I know that one day. And that's why I'm like. It's kind of nice to control this reveal because people try to catch me and try to put me on blast and try to capture me getting upset all the time. And, I mean, it's. It can happen to me when I'm using dope. I could go buy it from a prankster. And, you know, I used to make up stories on the street, too. I was the best. Did you really? Oh, dude, I made $40 every 10 steps I took when I was on the street. Because I said. It's still. Were you living on the street at some point? Kind of, but I would, like, stay in a dope dealer's garage or stay at some friend's. I was never the guy freezing on the concrete. Right. Which really hurts me to see. I always had enough people in my corner or just the dope man himself let me stay in the garage, you know? Yeah. Well, you're a charismatic guy. I mean, if you can figure out people. If you can navigate people, you can always survive. You're a survivor. And I was a salesman already, so I would. When I walk up to people and I would be like, hey, you mind helping me out? You know, I didn't look like the typical addict begging for change on the street. So they would be like, I got a 10, I got a 5. I don't know, but they're like, I'll buy you some food. And I'm like, okay, that'll free up money for the dope, you know? Like, I was a good panhandler, but I was getting 5s and 10s and 20s. And you were using it at that time? Yeah. And my dumb ass would take the first 20 I got and walk all the way to the dope house. Instead of saving up like 300, just going a little further down the street, dude. As soon as you get enough to get to the back, I would walk miles back to the dope house. It was the funniest shit ever, dude. I was the stupidest addict ever. I still am. I'm an idiot, bro. Yeah, dude. Addiction's crazy, man. How did it. Did it affect your ability to parent? Did it affect your ability to parent and stuff over the years? Like, how was that? Did it get pretty bad for you in that space? Or were you always able to show up in those spaces? Well, thank God. And are you a parent? Yeah, my son, he's a sophomore at Ohio State, man. Nice, dude. And he's a good kid. My ex-wife was my high school sweetheart, and I always knew she'd be the best mom. And we've raised an amazing kid. And he doesn't have, so far, so good, he doesn't drink or do drugs. He's the one that drives his friends around, and he loves God and, you know, God first and stuff, man. So I'm so happy about that. That's a blessing. Yeah. But he was a baby, like, one or two, or just the years where I had to put him to sleep, and then as soon as he fell asleep, I'd go and drive around and get high. Like, he doesn't remember those days. Yeah. I got clean in 2010 and stayed clean until 2020. I was 23, but the gambling kept me from being present. There was always this monster in my head saying, when can you go to Vegas again? When can you, when's the next poker tournament? Yeah. And so I look back on that, and I'm like, man, even though I never missed the sports games and all that shit, the gambling still kept me from spending, being present and being the person I like to think I am today as far as, like, I told you, I don't have to. Tell my mom, I got to go just to go somewhere. Yeah. You know, like, I can hang out and watch Law & Order with my mom for freaking days and just chill with her, you know, and not. Man, it's just such a blessing that I was, I got clean again, you know. Hey, man, it's hard to get back in. It's easier to stay here than get back here, right? That's the most, that's the truest statement I've ever heard, man. I was thinking about that today. I was at a meeting today. I was thinking about that. I'm like, God, dude, I remember just like, and it's not long ago. I say I remember, like, but, you know, it's like, I got like 77 days or something right now. What? Yeah. Mine's July 25th. Is it? I'm August 1st, you pussy. No way. That was the day I stopped gambling. I walked out of that casino. So my gambling clean date is August 1st, bro. Let's go. That's awesome. No shit. But yeah. But dude, just the organizing of things, to party, to have a good, to all of it. And it's okay. It's okay. It's no judgment against anybody or anything. But for me, it just. I couldn't work anymore. And I'm just praying I'm able to keep it away. But also, also, dude, somebody said the other day I was in a meeting. I said I had to admit to myself that I loved doing those things. A lot of times I'll be like, oh, I don't love. I loved having a good. I loved it. That's the thing I didn't want to admit, you know, because then I can't really operate from a place. That's the true honesty. I fucking love this. I didn't like the stress, all the other stuff that I don't even think about that's going on. Yeah. Dude, I loved numbing myself from reality, bro. I mean, it killed stress. It killed everything. And then I like to feel adventurous on it. People always said, oh, you have a hole in your soul and that's what you're trying to fill. I'm like, no, I just like to get high and take a walk in the woods and trip on some mushrooms and look at shapes changing. But I'm learning now that it's way more than that. But I didn't like to be handcuffed. I had to get high before I did anything. Even if it was just weed or alcohol, it was like I didn't want to start my day until I got high and being able to break those chains, man. And then the gambling thing, too. Just I feel I feel like I don't have handcuffs on anymore. And that's the best feeling, dude. I'm so happy for you for that. I'm happy for anybody. Yeah. This has like just to get some space to take a breath. Johnny. What's next? Do you have a plan for what's next? bro? Well, I'm actually working on a movie. Um, I've, it's been in the works for a while, but I have, uh, they're getting pretty serious about it. They, uh, they said they're going to start following me around with cameras for documentary here in a couple months. So, but I really don't know. And I don't care. So bright, like just being clean, I can handle anything coming my way. That's why I always during my sobriety, as long as I stayed, the number one priority for me is sticking to my, you know, getting, staying clean, man. So I don't know what's next really. I mean, the pranks now are just organic when I see something and I feel like making videos, but I'm not going to slave to the social media. I really want to take a break. Actually. I'm really wanting to put the phone down for a couple months and I'll probably do it. After this podcast, actually, how bad this slaving get to be out finding videos where you find yourself at like a crazy amount of time hunting the perfect video. No, it's pretty easy, but they, the best ones come when you don't try. When you go out and say, I'm going to go find videos. It never works. It's when I'm taking a shit at a restaurant and I see a fanny pack hanging there. And I know the guy's coming back for the fanny pack. And I, and I, in my head, I already knew I was going to start a tug of war video. So I get my phone ready and everything works when you don't try. It's literally once I quit trying to squeeze onto things and accomplish things. So I have no goals in life, dude. I mean, I'm 50 years old, bro. And just being healthy and being around my family and just being a good person is all that matters. I want to do something positive with this platform. That's all I want to do is, is do something positive with it, bro. Like that's the least I can do. I've had the most fun ever. Because of Johnny Hamcheck, but I want to give back. I want to do something with it. Positive, man. I don't know exactly what, but it's, uh, it's going to happen, you know, hopefully. Well, if anybody can figure something out, it's you, man. It seems like you've lived a million lives, man. And I think someone we didn't even really get to talk about. Um, but, uh, yeah, I just, I can imagine that. Like I can imagine it's been a, it just, it sounds like it's been quite a journey, man. Um, and yeah, dude, thanks for pulling up today. Thanks for just spending some time together, dude. It's so funny too, dude. The biggest prank of all is that you say you have two ponytails in the back. I don't have one even. You don't have any hair. Yeah. One, one video recently, the guy said, Oh, you went completely the opposite direction. I was like, and it is one of the funniest things. And that's why I was happy to actually show. And everyone's going to say bald bony on the internet. And I love that one. One of my fans said bald bony and I love it. And it's, it's funny and it's great. And I just don't, I just don't give a shit, man. It's, it's all love and all fun. And just, you know, I'm probably going to take some videos down off the internet now. Oh no, did I make you feel bad about it? Dude, I'm sorry, bro. I don't know what's right or wrong. I'm just thinking out loud. I'm messing with you. Like you mess with me, dude. Like that fucking first conversation we had. I don't know. Like I just couldn't keep up with you, dude. You're a genius and congrats on everything. It's an honor. To be here, bro. I'm can't tell you enough how, how happy I am to actually just reveal, reveal who I am a little bit, you know? Oh, who runs this shit show, dude? It's a fucking, yeah. I mean, nobody knows what the hell's going on in this business, bro. And that's life, dude. It is like, yeah, the dude, that is a truth, bro. Nobody knows what's going on in this business, dude. That is the truth. That's the thing that boggles my mind. You're telling me somebody created all this shit that we could talk. Forever about life, bro. But we could do it another time. Yeah, dude. Anytime you want. I'm down. But yeah, dude, I'm glad you're out there busting people's ball bonies, dude. And it's fucking been an absolute blast to watch, bro. Uh, Johnny Hamcheck, bro. Love, bro. Thank you, brother. One love. Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves. I must be cornerstone. Oh, but when I, when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of my life. I can feel it in my bones.