How to Keep Going When Life Breaks You with Rickey Smiley

You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. Ladies and gentlemen, we are back with another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged and today is going to be one of the most personal episodes that I've had because I'm talking with a guy that you all know, but he changed my life and he didn't even know it. There was a moment in college where I wanted to give up and Ricky Smiley changed my life. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the legend, the goat, Mr. Ricky Smiley. Thank you for having me, man. Appreciate that, bro. Thank you. Excuse the left hand, but I really appreciate you having me. No, I'm honored to be here, man, and I'm going to go straight to this point. You know, Ricky, we go to college. We graduate and everybody think life is good, right? Like you did the thing, you went to college, you graduated, now the world is about to open up to you. But the reality is, man, that wasn't happening for me. I saw all my friends struggling to get jobs and I'm 22. Like, man, if I go back home, it's going to be over. Like I can't go back home, right? Like I can't go to college and then come back home and do what everybody else back home is doing. Yeah. And there were nights, man, where, like I said in the intro, I just wanted to give up. And I would go back and watch Comic View. I would listen to the prank call tapes. You just never know when you need that thing. And then I started studying Ricky Smiley, the man, not the comedian, but the man and the father. And that changed my whole outlook on who I was supposed to be. I realized, I always knew I was supposed to be something, but I never knew that I could see it. Yeah. You allowed me to see it by studying your path, your journey that we have a lot of similarities in and then watching you just mature into Ricky Smiley, man. I'm proud of it for you, but I needed it for me. I needed to see that somebody look like me can go through life and be that. So I thank you, brother. No, man. Thank you for having me. And a lot of people talk about those Comic View days. A lot of people that I meet say, Hey, man, I was up watching Comic View when I supposed to been asleep and supposed to been in the bed. I was getting in trouble. Right. I was standing up late watching Comic View. So yeah, it's definitely a BET Comic View. It's definitely a historical institution for comedians. That was my first job. My first job in entertainment, you know, was BET, working for BET. So grateful for that opportunity. And I'm glad between that and the prank phone calls, you know, gave you some hope and put some, I hope that it puts some smiles on your face. You needed it. When you go through, I don't want to call it despair. I was just, I was trying to figure out who I was supposed to be and it was internal conflict and the laughter just helped me realize like, Hey, man, everything's all right. Like you're able to laugh. Yeah. You're able to put two feet on the ground and walk wherever you want to go. Like people don't get to enjoy that. Yeah. And then like I said, I started to study you and I was like, All right, it's okay. Like there is a path to make just good things happen and you can come from a Christian home and like I was raised like you were raised and you know how to do the right things. And when you get pulled certain directions, like, you know where your center is. And I was proud of you because you were a person that publicly were okay talking about your faith at a young age. You were okay talking about your upbringing at a young age and I didn't have that conflict anymore and I needed that from you. Yeah. Well, you know, that's my job. You know, it's, you know, to, you know, to give people hope to be a mentor, you know, to try to walk the best path that I could walk, try to do things the right way and hope that somebody see it and learn from it, you know, because, you know, like yourself and I said, we had mentors as well that we love them respected and kind of gave us something to aim to, you know, to reach for or whatever. So, yeah, you know, shout out to my mentors and my grandparents and my parents and my teachers, especially teachers in middle school and high school, when your real development happened. So, you know, shout out to them. You know, I'm from the South Birmingham, you know, Alabama, old fashioned home training where, you know, those teachers and instructors will tell you to sit up straight. Don't chew at your mouth, open table manners, wash your face, brush your teeth, sit up straight. May I, like it's a lot of little, you know, little things as far as Ricky Smiley's demand and the development of that, where that came from. Yeah. I'm so proud of it, man, because you've been that mentor for me as I got older, I had kids or I adopted my kids, but understanding what it's like to be a father. Again, you got to do a lot of things publicly, right? And you do so much privately and we'll talk about that later too that people don't realize, but you know, growing up in that era or raising kids in the era where it's like you can't discipline your kids, you know, you can't do these things and I'm watching Ricky Smiley like, I'm raising my kids the way that they're supposed to be raised. And I love that authenticity of you and like when did, I'm not going to say when did you know, but like what made you say you're committed to being Ricky Smiley and you're going to do it your way with child raising and all that. The problem in today's society, everything that's right is now wrong and everything that's wrong is downright. And I'm just trying to, I think they're what my grandparents and my parents did for me and worked for me. It was critical to my development and if it worked for me, it should work for my kids because it still works. Discipline and structure and teaching kids children respect and teaching them, you know, to be humble and respectful and stuff. It's still work. Yeah. You know, everybody so sensitive nowadays and everything is all, all, all don't hurt. That might hurt our feelings. Right. All it ain't no all. Get down. Don't do that again. Right. That didn't kill them. That didn't kill my granddaughter to tell her to get down and don't do it again. Do you understand? That's it. Yeah. That's not no, that's not abuse. Tell them to get down. I don't have to negotiate her getting down. Yeah. Get down. Yeah. I'm your grandpa or I'm your dad. Get down and that's the end of it. You'll be fine. If it hurts your feelings, fine because the world is going to really hurt your feelings when you get out here and meet some of the people. So you know, I just tell them what it is. Like my grandparents told me it didn't kill me and so it's not going to kill them. Right. I'm not compromising. I'm not get down. If you get down, I'll give you a cookie. If you get down, I'll give you a juice. I'm not giving you nothing. It's not a negotiation. Get down. Right. Period. Right. And that's it. And isn't it crazy? Like we knew as kids, like I think parents forget kids know right and wrong. They do. They're just testing your limits on what are you going to allow them to do. And you set that standard for your children. Again, that's why I appreciate you because it allowed me when my kids were, you know, preteen to teen to say, I'm going to talk to you like an adult, but I'm still your father. Right. Right. And I'm, Ricky's mom, I'm not going to repeat myself if I say it once. It's been said. Yeah. And we get caught up in trying to give kids what we did not have as opposed to giving them what we had. Right. That's the key to success. If you like who you are, then give the kids what you had as opposed to what you did have. Now, the clean up version and the, we watch Ayanna Van Zandt fix my life and Dr. Phil with a little bit of psychology mixed in there and say, Hey, okay, I can, you can tweak some things, but that basic foundation, you know, we went to church and we're going to be sitting here for an hour and a half hour, 45 minutes, sit down, be quiet, be still. No, they don't have children's church. You don't have to be in the town all the time. You have to learn to sit down and be quiet and be still. Like we had to do a church and no, you're not getting an iPad. We're not taking an iPad in the church as a pacifier. I mean, I've been having an iPad all the time and the car, as a matter of fact, I don't have an iPad in the car because half of these kids can't tell you how to get home because they're so focused and so busy looking in the iPad. They can't point to anybody. Hey, turn, make a little turn right there. Stop at that stop sign. Go straight third house, right? Like none of that. So, you know, I try to give my children and grandchildren a lot of what I had as opposed to what I didn't have. The same manners and home training and discipline and structure that I got and I received, I give to them and I hope that it make them respectful adults and productive adults. So I'm going to get to this amazing bestselling book in one second. I usually start my show by asking my guests, what's your be cause? Because I've read this book four times, like I feel it in there, but I classify your be cause as that thing that's deeper than your why, right? Like to me, your why is superficial. People talk about all the time, I got to find my why. Well, you know what your why is. It's the reason that makes them or that thing your why that's really important. So if I were to say, what's your why? And then I say, but why is it your why? Why is it important? That sentence starts with well, because I care about that because that tells me who you are. So if I were to say, Ricky 2026 map, what's your be cause? Why do you continue to do all the amazing things that you do for communities, for children, mentoring other people? Like what's your be cause? Oh, you know, I do it because I love what I do. You know, I love to help people. I hope that I would change somebody's life. I hope that I was able to make somebody's life better. I wake up just to do that. You know, it's a responsibility. It's something that you have to do. It's my life. It's what I, it's who I am. You know, giving and helping and mentoring is who I am as a person. And you know, you know, our job is to bless people and to help people, help people, but bless people, mentor people, you know, cause life is not just about you. You know, and you know, people did not make everything about them. You know, our grandparents and parents and great uncles and teachers, they made personal sacrifices so we can have what we have. And you just have to pay it forward. And that's why that's why you live. You know, wake up every day to serve God and God and to do God's work. You know, start out my morning show with praise break, you know, the first 14 minutes of the show, it's just giving God the praise and you know, a lot of time God put you in certain positions so he could see what you're going to do with it and so he could see if he could trust you. And I tell God a long time ago, hey, if you get me out of this rut right here, I promise you I'll serve you to the day I die and try to make somebody life better because of the things that you bless me with. Yeah. But we have to also understand that, you know, everybody that you bless is not going to appreciate that comes with the territory. That's the dark side of it. So at this age or whatever, I'm starting to realize a good balance between good people and appreciative people and bad people and not so appreciative people and how to navigate through that and find people to help and mentor and love and bless that actually appreciate what you're trying to do for them and it's really hard. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't know I needed to hear that. Yeah. I needed that. I needed that so much, man, because you're right, like you never understand people's intention because you feel like I'm talking about me. You just want to do good. You just want to do good. Even when you kind of feel like they don't appreciate it, you still want to feel good and now I'm starting to look at it because you just reminded me that I could have gave that good intention somewhere else. Absolutely. Man, when I tell you, I got a text message, an entitled text message, like it was real entitled and I sent them an itemized copy of everything that I'd done to help them and sent it to them and hit that block button because one thing I'm always do is protect my peace. Yes. Nobody on this earth have to do anything for you. Nobody. If anybody think enough of you and kind of, I'm real loyal to people that have helped me. Man, I wish I can have some of my teachers still be living today or whatever. In the last and one of the last teachers I had, man, I made sure she was straight. I made sure she had everything she needed. I gave her something every month and I sent her her cigarettes and her kibosia. That's what she drank. That's what she did. Anytime she wanted to get on a plane and go anywhere, I sent her and made sure that she got to and from the airport. That's what it's all about because man, those teachers, when they pocket and pocket books because everybody couldn't afford to go to the Ringland Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. We all couldn't afford to go to the Zootom teachers when they pocket and pay for us to have some of the things that we had. You didn't have money in the lunch room. You couldn't get a tray and shit. Those teachers back then, when you sit there and not have anything to eat, they bought your lunch for you. Your mom and grandma paid them back eventually, but they made personal sacrifices with their own money for us and stuff. I hope I'm answering your question. That's what it's all about. Absolutely. Yeah, helping people and loving people, but also understanding that everybody's not going to appreciate it, be prepared for the disappointment. You don't know how those people are going to act. God put it on your heart to help somebody just do it. I don't look for anything in return. You're going to help 20 people, 20. 20 people. I promise you, six or seven are going to come back and say thank you. I really appreciate it. And some you'll never hear from again. Right. Or some of them you will. That's only if they need something. And I'm telling you, you taught me that, man. Like when I tell you I studied you, I studied you. And speaking of study, I'm going to make a confession. I'm going to look right in this camera right here because everybody that knows me knows this. I've only cried five times in my life. I'm talking about tears down my eyes crying. When my grandfather passed, when my mama, my grandma passed, my granny passed. The other two times I was reading this book right here. This book, it was therapy. It is therapy. I'm never going to say was because I shouldn't say I read it like I read the Bible, but there's there's moments where I need to connect. This this book. Grounds me, man. So everybody wants this to be zoomed in. Sight show, Ricky Smiley. So much so that I usually do this a thing, but I'm going to do it now. The first. 50 people. That message me Sight Show. I'm going to get you a copy of this book. I'm buying it. I'm sending it to you. Thank you. And I really mean that, Rick, because here's the thing. I knew you, not personally, but I knew you. Yeah. I didn't know you. And there's there's a lot of parallels in my life and your life. But I understood because publicly you've talked about. You know, the journey you've talked about the losses. But I think seeing it from your viewpoint in a different way, man, like the journey of when it started with your father, which I didn't know. April 11th, right? Yeah, April 11th. Seventy four. 1974. It kind of started and I've I read this book in the first time I cried, man. I cried for you because. That's a lot. Like, like when you read this book, you're going to understand. And I promise you, it's not like a sad story. Like you just understand more about Ricky. Yeah. Right. I cry because, you know, we've always heard growing up in church, there's a saying, God never gives you more than you can bear. Right. He's never. I said, well, I don't know about Ricky. I don't know about because there are moments where I'm just sitting there and I had to start reading and I was like, I can't hear another. I can't read another situation because again, there's things I just didn't know. Bro. So one, I thank you for the book, for writing the book. I thank you for the therapy. But dang, bro. Like I didn't know Rick. Yeah. Dolly McCord told me, Dolly, you know, gospel singer Dolly McCord, she told me at my son's funeral, I think it was out there. She said, man, she said, you built Ford Tough. Yes. I'm talking about Ford Tough. Like, you know, I had to, I had to be strong for my other children and my mother, you know, and my son's parents, you know, his mother and father, you know, his sister, you know, I had to be strong for them. I had to have to walk through that or whatever. And then I had to deal with my grief privately. You know, only thing I could think to do is praise. And that's all I know to do. I'm trained and, you know, I never, I never would have gotten through all of that if it was not for my Christian foundation and my faith. You know, man, but God, you know, God walked me through that. And I often think about all of the mothers that have lost sons and especially the ones that lost sons that have cancer, the ones that have to go to dialysis. The kids that lost their children in their homeless. And they don't have no. I ran the mother that buried their son that don't have money to pay for a casket in a tombstone. I'm talking about mothers that have lost their sons. That's three years old. Yeah. Two years old. I was talking to a mother last week, who two year old daughter died in her sleep. And my daughter's was on the tennis court, having tennis practice. And I was walking back and forth in the parking lot on speakerphone, trying to uplift them, another mother and let her know about God will see you through all of this. Wow. And, you know, sometimes God let you go through stuff, man, where you can be there for others. That's a that's that's the thing. Yeah. You know, I thank God for just allowing me to start the healing process. Yeah. To start to feel like I can take a deep breath to start to see the sun again or to feel the warmth of the sun. Yeah. And I don't take those little things like that for granted. It's not even that's a big deal. Yeah. You know, so it's not about me and if I can help somebody heal, be there for somebody who has someone to talk to. And that's what that's my that's my job. I just let God use me. And so you were talking through where I was going to ask like my first question about the book was, did you know what was going to be a healer for others? And it sounds like at some point you did. When did you say I'm going to write a book? I was having a conversation with my business manager and then she got my publicist on the phone. We had the same conversation and they was like, you got to we got to write this. We got to write this up. We got to put it in a book and and it started from there. OK. And because all of the stuff, you know, the the mirror between my dad's death and how he died and watched my and I sat there and watched my grandparents go through that. And then I became my granddad. Sitting on the front row, burying my son. It's so many. It's the book is really, really deep. And I would encourage anybody to get it. If you're going through the grief process, it's definitely going to open you up. It's definitely going to help you out. So not only that, and this is something nobody in the world knows. And I'm saying it to you, I'm going to look you in your eye and tell you. It helps you prepare for grief, too. Wow. Ricky. My father died April 1st, two Wednesdays ago. Now, sorry for your loss, just this past just 10 days or seven days ago. Now, we didn't have a great relationship. I hadn't seen my dad. In 15 years, except once at my granny's funeral, and we hadn't talked. We hadn't done anything. And I didn't feel a certain way. And it's not because he wasn't in my life anymore or anything. But I was prepared. And this helped me prepare for that. And I didn't realize it. Obviously, I knew you and I were going to have this conversation. And I wanted to tell you that, that not only is it for healing, it is also for preparation. Like reading this book helped me understand fundamentally. I never heard that. That's the first time somebody ever said that to me. Thank you for that. Yeah. Because, again, when you're writing something, you're writing it with intent, right? But you never know what someone needs. Right. Right. And it helped me prepare. Obviously, I didn't know my dad was going to die. He wasn't dying or anything like that. But it helped me with the right mental framework. And so now I want I'm going to talk to men specifically here. You can't be too big. You can't be too proud. You can't have too much ego. One to grieve. One to seek help to seek help for that. And to the talk to other people. And again, that's what this book allowed me to understand was that put your ego aside. Being a man doesn't mean you got to be tough 24 seven. You still have responsibilities, but you also need to make sure that you're OK so you can handle those responsibilities. And I got that from Ricky Smiley. Yeah. And it's tough, man. When I tell you it's tough, man, it is. I, man, you know, it's crazy because you know, when you when you go out to go back to the morgue and see your son laying there with no life in his body, man, it's something this this same kid, he's a circus thumb asleep in the bed with you in down. You just never thought that it would end up like this. And especially being a public figure, being somebody that have a responsibility to get on that microphone because you got eight million listeners who all and a lot of them have lost their kids and they're dependent on you and the praise break in order to get through and they worried about you. You know, my son died on the Sunday. When I say I was back on the air because I don't want to lay in the bed thinking about that. Let me just go do my morning show to give me some some therapy and help me a little bit. And then, you know, I can deal with that later. I had to make some tough decisions during that time. Yeah. Yeah, it was it was it was tough. It was the worst and darkest days of my whole life. Yeah. But you came through it and you're coming through it. Coming through it. And and I think I know for for me personally, a lot of folks that I know, like, we just wanted to show you love by being there, like, even if we couldn't physically be there. Yeah, thank you. But but to to like Ricky, man, like, we're with you. We love you. Keep doing the show. Keep keep keep smiling even when it's tough. And you talk about that in the book and I want to go there next to. But, you know, we need we need Ricky. Yeah, because we've all gone through something. And like I said, I don't know if you realize it enough, man. But like, people follow you. People model themselves after like people need you. And so it's like I I need to make sure Ricky can be strong because I'm going to need to be strong one day and I'm going to need to look back at how Ricky is doing. Yeah, one thing about life, man, depth is going to happen. Right. Yeah, depth is going to happen. Depends on knock at your door. And in like you said, reading my book will will get you prepared because we all got to leave here. That's what Reverend John King was preaching about Sunday. You know, we all going to leave here. We're not going to be here forever, you know, and and then you need to prepare your family for your death. And get things in order and in place and change your will up every month or two. You know, as much as you need to. Why are you staring at me? Why are you staring at me? I'm just I'm just saying it. Saying it. I know, yeah, I need to. It's so important as a man not to leave your family in because they are already going to be going through the group process. So you don't want to leave them in chaos, right? And have everything organized. Like I had my mom, you know, my stepdad. Get this stuff together. And she came over one day, she put an envelope in my hand. OK, I mean, it didn't happen to me. Here you go. And of course, I open it up right then, start reading through this stuff or whatever, looking at stuff, asking questions or whatever. You know, just mess with it. But your death is a part of life. But you don't expect for your children to die. You don't. You don't expect for your children to die. And, you know, I also talk about therapy in the book in the importance of going to therapy, because when I went to therapy, I started opening up talking about it. This this it wasn't just that. This went all the way back to my childhood. Mm hmm. You know, moments of grief and and the things that happened after the grief. Yeah. You know, process that I deal with. And then all of a sudden it happens to me. You know, because I always looked at my granddad instead of my granddad. Like, I cannot believe that he went through that and he buried his son and I was real close to my granddad. You know, and then I became him. And that's something the parallel, right? Yeah, the parallel is so crazy. It was exactly. And what was really sad to see my uncles who picked me up from the airport go through this all over again, because they went through this with my dad. Yeah. And now they lose their nephew. Yeah. You know, and they picked me up from the airport. When I flew in Birmingham, all three of them was in the car crying. And the only thing I could think to do was turn the radio up. It was on on 97 kids, the R&B station to lighten the mood. When I got home, it was the NFC or AFC playoffs. I know all I remember the Bengals was playing. Yeah. And when I got in the house, I just turned the game up, turned the volume up to have it to to lighten it a little bit, you know, get people distracted a little bit, get them watching the game. Yeah. To get their mind off of that, because it was terrifying. It was it was awful. It felt bad. It was dark. It was cloudy. It was rainy. And just some football just bring just a little bit of just a lightening. A little bit. And and I just had to manage stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. And you talked about therapy and I want again, I'm going to talk to men because a lot of times we feel too proud. And I was I didn't I didn't go to therapy the first time until I read the book through the first time. And I realized that. I need help. Yeah. And it's OK to admit that. And I travel a lot and then I realized that, oh, there's teletherapist. Like I don't have to be at home. Like I can do this on a call or on a Zoom or whatever now. And it helped me. Understand me a little bit. It helped me understand sometimes how I make the decisions that I make, the emotions that I have and what brings out the good, the bad, the indifferent. But again, I'm going to keep giving Ricky smiley his flowers while he's here. He helped me understand that. Yeah. And so for everybody, not not just the men, but I think for everybody. Having some type of regular therapy call session and whatever regular means to you, it doesn't mean weekly, daily, month, quarterly and like whatever is good for your spirit. Yeah, you better sit down and talk about it. You have to get it out. Right. You have to cry it out. I can't tell you how many days I sat on the steps that go down into my kitchen. I sat on that step and cried for days. And I was just in the house. I can look up at the ceiling and see the cries engraved in the paint because I just remember crying and looking up and just crying out this in the house by myself. This is when when those funeral directors say when the flowers have withered, when the when the cards stop coming and the phone calls coming and like a year later, it really hit me. Yeah. Now, only difference between when my son died a year later, you don't have no casket, no flowers, no obituaries and no condolences. And you you are stuck with by yourself. Just you in the house by yourself, just you having to relive it all over again. So, yeah, you better you better go get some help because that's like running into a brick wall. Yeah, because what is my life now? Yeah. You know, like in the in the blink of a second, your life changed. You know, so it's it's horrible. It is. But God. But God. But God. But God. You know, in the book, you talk about, you know, you're obviously a public figure, comedian, radio show, a lot of things you do in the community. And your job is to part of your job. One of your jobs, make people laugh, make people smile. But on the inside, you're dying. And a lot of times, I mean, and this is even before Brandon, right? Like a lot of times people didn't know the things that you were carrying on the inside and you've got teams and you've got to be the source for everybody. Yeah. Talk about that, man, because I don't think people understand that enough, especially a person like a Ricky Smiley. Yeah, you literally on stage doing Joe doing comedy, performing while you were crying on the inside. I remember I performed at the the casino right outside of Cleveland. I had did a comedy show there at the Brandon. I think that was my first time going on stage. Man, I cried from from downtown Cleveland all the way to the casino. And I know that driver had to be uncomfortable. And I mean, I was booing the drivers. I could tell he wanted to ask what was wrong, but he was in between that. And say, I might not want to bother him. And I sat in the car and cried when in the dressing room and cried some more. And cried all the way up until they was introducing me to go on stage. It blew my nose. I'm very sure nothing was in my nose and got myself together and went on stage and killed them. Yeah. Killed them while hard broken on the inside. Same thing happened. I was at some community club and I just was outside crying back back behind the the community club, just crying it out, trying to get it out of my system. So I can go on stage and perform because I still have to work. I still have bills that need to be paid. I other people are sitting in the audience, you know, that's that's stage for cancer and sitting on dialysis, you know, you know, coming out to see you perform. Yeah. And you have a responsibility, much is given, much is required. You have to make sacrifices. And you just can't sit in the house. You got to continue to keep moving and keep working and stuff because that's going to help you here. It's not going to solve it, but it's going to help you. Going to the radio session Wednesday, Thursday and that Friday really helped me out a lot. It really, really, really helped me out a lot. You know, I had a lot to do. I had a lot of responsibility. Had to make sure my other children were straight. Had to make sure my mother was straight. And I had to I had to push through it. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. So something else in the book, but everybody knows this about Ricky Smiley. You were the son of Birmingham, bro. One of them. Now you are the son. Now was old, old Roy Wood. This this this Roy Wood, Jr. You were said Roy is on the show too. But you and Ruben stood it. No, we are sons of Birmingham. Roy and I became from the same radio station, 90 by 7 jam. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you were still role tied. Role damn tight. We'll talk about that one another day. You like your desert team. So I'm a Tar Heel and a Bulldog. Tar Heel. We we hit no much. And you know, we come from we hit no much in sports right now. But I am a Bulldog. I had an uncle who played there. Yeah. We trying to be all right. OK. Trying to. Y'all going to do something? Y'all going to be back? I don't know. We I don't know. That's a whole conversation. Because it's a different kind of generation. I don't know. They got to find the right kind of coast to coast. This generation, this is not the Nick Saban generation. And these guys are different from the guys that I saw play at Bama. Yeah, they are a little different, a little weird. So you got to find somebody that might understand the culture something to get them to play because these kids are different. And entitled. I'm trying to figure out why the backup to the backup is entitled, though. Like the third string, dude, is the first one in the portal. It's like, yeah. Why? Yeah, yeah, they need to get all that type of football. This is college football. This is not the same. No, it's not. It's not. It's not. Well, Rick, man, what all do you have coming up next? What's Ricky working on? Oh, I think I got some opportunities on. I think HGTV, I'm still performing all over the country. Right. I do this carry your amazing karaoke night or whatever. My karaoke night is amazing. Where are we doing that at? I think I have the next show in Orlando this Friday. But I kind of do karaoke all over the country. I do it in Nashville, Birmingham, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, here in Atlanta. I love doing karaoke. I just think it's so much different from a comedy show. It's so much fun. You know, I got my grandkids and my twins growing up or whatever. So I always looking forward to that. So nothing like parenting. Them, my identical twin daughters, they so much fun and give you so much light in my granddaughters and my grandson. So I get a real big kick out of that. During the morning show every morning, probably going to do another comedy special in 2027. I hope you all like foolish foolish. You can check that out on Hulu. Yes. It's actually funny. I personally like that kind of discussion. That's my personal favorite comedy special directed by David and Landtaubert and the executive produced by them. I really appreciate that opportunity. So yeah, I have uncensored coming out on TV. You want a rick smile and uncensored coming out. And I can watch it. It's actually pretty good. I probably won't watch it because I don't like watching myself on television. But I did watch foolish now. I wanted to sit back and laugh because of jokes. Yes. I watched it for the joke. I can get my laugh on. Yeah, whatever. From beginning to end. It's funny. It hits hard. Yeah. Right. And that's what I love about Ricky because you give you give us different. Like, and this isn't a knock on any comedians by any stretch imagination because comedy stand up comedy is hard. Right. Period. Period. Right. But there are moments where there's like little lulls in a special. Right. Yeah. The joke didn't quite hit my comedians. So like Ricky is playing drums, give it the rhythm, giving it to you every time. Go, baby. Yes, sir. Yeah. But but but you know, just so many different opportunities. I supposed to be doing some stuff with country Wayne and went on him to call me. I really want to do some scenes on. OK, on country Wayne's show because I'm a big fan of it. I'm like, I can just bartend. Just have me in the background bartending. I just need to do something with country Wayne. Because I think it's skits are hilarious. I would love to do something with Dezzy Banks or whatever. You know, I just want to have fun. And I just want to have a great time and make people mad. And I start to secure my legacy and continue to do good radio. Hey, the legacy is secure, bro. Yeah, I know. I know you because when it's you, it's hard to see. Yeah. Your legacy is solidified. I can promise you, I know me and college, my same group of homeboys still talk about little Darrell to this day. Actually, one of the ants, what I'm talking for you. He wants to know when is little Darrell coming back? Like we need a little Darrell special. We need something. We have a birthday party this fall for little Darrell. Little Darrell is in his 40s now. I got a wife and wife and a son. He married to a heaven said white woman and he got a little mixed baby. So we're going to have a birthday party with him because he and his they'll be forty three or forty four or something. But I'm throwing little Darrell birthday party. So make sure y'all y'all come out. Look, make on plug is bringing the cake. We're going to have the birthday cake. That's crazy. And I still do it on stage, but not in that. I do it in a different way, but it's funny. It is. But my listen, man, my stand up comedy right now is written so rich. This is the funniest I ever been because I've been through so much. I have so much to talk about. And the funniest parts about getting older and talking about the young generation. How they scare the hell out of us. I got some funny stuff. So, you know, if you ever get a chance to see me perform live, man, I give you a show from the beginning to the end. When I went to Charlotte, when I went to Raleigh, the improv Charlotte to the company's own from beginning to the end, a whole lot of fun. Absolutely. And, you know, my youngest son is in school in Miami. And I was told you're going to be doing a show in Coral Springs sometime this summer. So I'm going to come through there. Yeah, I'm going to come through. We're in school. He's at University of Miami. OK, he's Marine Biology. Oh, nice. He can swim. I just let you on your own. I deal with that ocean. Yeah. That's one of my favorite things to do is to be out on the ocean. And I swim with sharks and stingrays and all that stuff. Man, I love the ocean. I watch all. Yeah, I get my ankles in. And then I'm like, all right, good. I'm going to go back under the shade. This umbrella. Because I'm swimming. I dive off into that deep blue ocean and swim. And I just I just thank God I ain't got eight up. Yeah. Yes. Not going to worry. There it is. All right, I'm going to get you out of here on this. Well, first again, we're going to zoom in here. The first 50 people that messaged me site show. I'm getting you a copy of the book. You all know I do that anyway. You know I'm in the bookside show. No. Do you ever know why? No. All right. So the name side show came from the song side show. OK. By Blue Magic. Let the side show begin. Hurry, hurry. Step right on in. Can afford to pass it by. But guaranteed to make you cry. So I show the song is about a clown. That's performing, but he's sad on the inside. That's that's that's what side show. That's why I got the topic science from. But all the trials and tribulations that's going on in my life and the things that I have happening that's going on and still have the ability to go on stage and perform and get on the radio and make people laugh. Like why you crying on it. And then I used to cry doing commercial break during the radio show. Go and cry it out and come back and crack jokes or whatever. That's my job. Right. Right. So that's what the topic I mean, the title side show. I didn't know. Yeah. Now I like it. I like it. So first 50 people getting a copy. If you number 51, go to Amazon, go to Barnes and Nobles. Go to your local bookstore, support local too. But get the book. I can promise you it's going to change your life. It's changed my life. If you are grieving. You definitely need it because it's going to help you. It helped me prepare, which again, bro, like there's some fundamental principles in here that you go through that that's amazing. So thank you. Everybody go get this book. My last question for Ricky Smiley is this. I know you cook, you throw down. Oh, yeah. When I cook, I used to know what you about that. Yes. Oh, chicken and dumplings, collard greens out of my garden that I grew. OK. Macaroni and cheese, the Bahamas style macaroni and cheese. Yeah. If you haven't had macaroni and cheese, unless you had it in in the Bahamas or Jamaica, the Hamions make good macaroni and cheese. And they don't just do cheese. They season their macaroni and cheese. It's flavorful. You can swallow it and still taste it. That's good macaroni and cheese because it's seasoned. I did gumbo. Yeah, I always have to add gumbo or whatever, you know, because I'm a fan of, you know, Cajun cuisine, lobster bisque. I did lamb chops. We had dressing, chicken, turkey wings, smoked turkey nicks. It had it all laid out. My mom bought some potato salad because I don't let anybody bring nothing. I don't like people bringing right. Just just don't don't bring nothing. Everything is here. Coming in there with all that aluminum foil and pans and crock pots. And it made my nerves bad. And you you mess it up the order. We have a tight tight menu. That's what it is. I just my mom said I did forget to make the pinto beans. I was going to make some pinto beans, but we had our big, big, big Easter dinner in the day before that. The Easter bunny came Peter. Cotton tail came through hung out with the kids. We did a little Easter egg. I used to Easter and Thanksgiving is a really big deal at my house. So yeah, the food was good. And do I want to open up a restaurant? Absolutely not. After what y'all did, the Miss Tina, what y'all did? The gladness night and having all these bloggers show up to to judge your food and criticize your food. Y'all talk about candy and Todd and anybody that open up a restaurant. Y'all want to go in there and make video. I would never. Now, if I do a restaurant on the days that I decided to cook, I'll send out an email to people that I want to. Because you'll fill it up anyway. I'm going to invite people that I want to come. But I would never open up to get publicly humiliated. The way they did, I don't care if the food, the gumbo or whatever was not good for you to go on on the internet and and just do stuff like that to people. I seen people do that with candy. I seen people do it to sweetie pies. Right. You know, and every time I went in all of these establishments, the food was amazing. Everybody gumbo is different or whatever. And by the way, gumbo is not just about the roof. It's a seasoning in the house. Anyway, that's a whole another podcast show on gumbo. Because I'm trained by executive show. Shout out to my to Kurt Boudreau, you know, who really spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with him learning how to cook and prepare food like an executive chef. I'm not talking about a caterer. It's a different between a caterer and an executive chef. We're learning today. And I'm learning from him like cutting exercises and all of this stuff and wives and the dudes and the don't. A lot of people don't know. So I learned a lot of stuff. So but what I'm on right now is my seafood pot pot. I make I made it for the first time. It was a hit. Yeah, man, I'm going to make a seafood pot pot. I'll make sure you get one. Yes, please make a video. And on the top, I did the the crust with the I used to cheddar biscuit from real officer. You combine it in the box and make the biscuit and you put it on top of the seafood pot. You got some other. I wish I did because I'm so hungry right now. I am too. I can taste. I could really use it right now. So I put a little shrimp, but people don't understand the importance of just making sure that you that you get the seafood flavor or whatever. I'm really getting really, really, really good with seafood. So I'm learning a lot, trying to expand my taste palette and really get in the kitchen and cook. But I will make a recipe book to teach you how to cook. But I'll never open up a restaurant for you to come in there and cuss me out, cuss my employees out. They say, I'll push over cash registers and all that kind of stuff. Want to come in there, dress wrong, because you can't tell nobody how to dress. You're right. If you're coming to Rick and Smiley restaurant, you're going to be dressed for dinner. Yeah. And I'm a classy person. And I was raised with class. And I don't want to deal with the puppy because everybody don't have the same home training. You got that right. You got that. I know I said a whole lot. No, no. So I don't I don't know if this is meant for me to tell you. But I'm telling you anyway, cooking with Ricky Smiley. I don't know if that's the book. I don't know if that's an Instagram show or channel. I don't know if it's a TV show, YouTube, whatever. If I get me a sushi, I'll do it. I get some cameras. I'm going to do that one day. That's a good idea. People tell me to be here. I'm going to do a cooking with Ricky Smiley and then have guests on or whatever. But I happen to have me a couple of sushi up because cutting up all those onions in those bell peppers. Get I had a cooking show on Fox Soul. But man, when you start prepping and you got to do then you got to shoot. Then you got to clean up the kitchen. Yeah, man. That's a lot. It's a clean up part for me. $1,200. So. You heard it here first, cooking with Ricky Smiley. Yes. If you want to be a chef, send your resume. Don't just think you're going to show up like I will. I will vet the resume for you. Please. I got you. Come Ricky, brother. I love you, man. Thank you so much for everything. You've meant for me. Ladies and gentlemen, he's Ricky Smiley. I would tell you where to find him. You know how to find him. But most importantly, get the book. Side show. Get the book. Thank you, man. You got it. That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen. Share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review so more people can find there because I'm Rudy Rush. And until next time, stay driven, stay focused and stay. Unplugged.